


A Life Recalled

by KillCode311



Series: Project Perdition [1]
Category: Five Night's at Freddy's - Fandom
Genre: Loneliness, Mike kinda hates everyone, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, crushing guilt, desperation for a chance to live, mental issues, mysterious background, not-a-lorey-story, sentient animatronics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-01-06 05:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 56,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21221543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KillCode311/pseuds/KillCode311
Summary: Mikeal Schmidt is struggling to find a job and maintain his status as not-homeless when an ad for Freddy Fazbears reopening catches his attention. The restaurant requires little experience or requirements besides a simple background check. However, this is the wall that Mike faces. Will he be able to keep his background a secret? Can he keep his eyeballs and teeth in his head and not hanging from the mask of Freddy Fazbear himself? Why don't you read it and find out? Why are you still reading the description? Stop it. Read the story. Why are you still here? Go away!! Stop reading this! If you don't go read the book I'll spoil it! I will! Don't test me! I'm serious! This story's gonna get sppoooiiillleddd. Expiration date is nearrriiiinnnnngggg. Fine you win, keep reading. I won't stop you, I can't. You're some sort of tyrant who won't stop reading the description to go read the story it's describing instead. You are indubitably despicable you daring desperado. Okay fine I'll stop.





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue  
Mike was sick to his stomach, his head was bursting with pain and his eyes were sore. He frantically flipped through the security cameras as fast as his eyes could send the visual signals to his brain. They were all around him, one creeping down the hall, another right outside his left door. He pressed the light to his left as fast as he could, minimizing his power usage. The freakish chicken stood there, it’s beak wide open and eyes staring blankly. Mike had never liked the chicken anyways, he never liked any of them. They were always staring accusingly at him, like he’d done something wrong. A small feeling stirred inside him, underneath the fear and panic that he was feeling. Mike pushed it away and went back to his job, keeping himself alive for as long as he could. They were right there, two feet away, only separated by a metal door and 8% of battery left in the building. Mike shut his eyes and focused his mind, centering it and calming himself down. All that went out the window when he heard quick footsteps approaching his left door. His eyes shot open and he lunged for the door button, instead the light flickered on, just as he saw a red blur flash by the window and skid through the door.

Chapter 1

Mike was not happy, he turned angrily from the interviewers office and stormed down the cheerful hall with happy motivational posters lining it. “Working hard or hardly working?” one proclaimed with a picture of a stick figure sleeping at his desk. “Quality is everybody’s responsibility!” another said. Mike sneered in disgust, the posters were so lame and overdone. Grown adults worked here and they used cartoonish pictures to get them in a working mood? Mike was almost glad that they didn’t hire him, otherwise he might’ve lost it with the “Life offers you so many doors, it is up to you which to open and which one to close.” “What about when the doors are slammed in your face?” Mike thought glumly. “Mikeal?” someone called. Mike groaned at hearing his full name, it was bad enough that his parents named him Mikeal. They thought it was clever, at least they didn’t choose Mich which was choice number two. That would have been impossible to live with. He instead had to live with people reading his name as “Mik-eel” which he always had to correct them by saying, “It’s Mikeal” over and over again. Fortunately, he had not been given the usual family name of Brody. Brody was such a stuck up name and irritated him whenever he heard it.

Mike turned to see who had called him and groaned at his bad luck and karma. It was the single person he had sworn to never look at or speak to again, and literally the last person he wanted to see at this moment. Brody Wilson, the worst person he had ever known in his junior high school and high school life. Brody was the very bane of his existence and the tormentor of tormentors.  
“It is you! What’s up kid?” he asked jumping up from his desk and fixing his American boy blonde hair. He liked to call Brody Mr. America due to his hair, his blue eyes, and his tall stature, in his head until the day he accidentally said it out loud. Brody just laughed and started telling everyone to call him Mr. America from now on. It was infuriating how he refused to get angry at his classmates jab at his looks, Mike’s fury only grew at the name “kid”, it was the only other thing he called him other than “bro” and both equally made him want to punch him.  
“Nothing” Mike said and turned to leave. Brody’s hand landed on his shoulder and stopped him, “Come on man there’s gotta be something up! What about the interview? How’d it go?”  
“How’d you know I had an inter-” Mike started but was interrupted by another person's voice.  
“Mikeal’s here?” A feminine voice called, Mike froze and pushed off the hand. A woman rounded the corner, she had long brown hair and soft features. It was Hanna, the last girl he wanted to see. “Let’s just make it a party, why don’t we invite the whole class of ‘99?” Mike muttered under his breath. Brody’s smile widened and Mike sincerely hoped he wasn’t about to say what he knew he was about to say.  
“You know? Why not? We should gather up the gang and have a little get together at my place?” Brody was notorious for having “parties at his place” and he usually invited all the people who seemed to hate or pick on Mike back in high school. Mike went to the first one, hoping that maybe he’d make some friends, but left as soon as he saw Hanna there. Brody was talking indistinctly about party details but Mike was focused on Hanna, his ex watching him carefully like he was a bomb that might or might not blow up if she didn’t deactivate it.  
“Listen,” Mike said interrupting Brody in his own little party planning committee, “I have to run to go pick up my kids from school, call me if you have any more details, okay? Bye.” Mike turned on his heel and walked towards the elevator.  
“But I don’t have your number...and it’s Saturday.” Brody called after him,  
“All the better for ignoring you with.” Mike thought, pretending not to hear him. Brody chuckled at his friends absentmindedness. He’d have to dig around in his house to find the phone book. Mike wouldn’t want to miss this party.

Mike glared a hole in the opposite wall of the elevator. He hated seeing people from his past school life. Nothing good came from those years, at least nothing good came his way. All his classmates had seemed to succeed and become famous or rich or something. All the while little old Mikeal was struggling to find and hold a job. Mike had gotten offers of financial help from his old classmates, but he didn’t want help. He didn’t need it, he never did, he never will. Mike had always felt that he was capable and hard-working when he wanted to do something or was motivated. The only problem was that there was nothing about school that motivated him, and nothing the teachers could find that motivated him. Mike had always felt like the teachers only helped just to prove that they could, that they could finally get the Schmidt kid to be interested in something. The only thing that Mike succeeded in was mechanics and computer programming. All the rest of the subjects seemed pointless, when was trigonometry going to help him write code or fix an engine. The teachers always claimed that math, english, and science were everywhere. But Mike had yet to find them in any important areas. After a while most teachers had given up and left Mike to his own devices. Except one, but he was gone now. 

Mike hated how his thoughts always seemed to drag him down into a depressive state. It seemed whenever he had time to himself he just brought himself down and wallowed in his depressive state. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. The woman and man standing at the doors paused as they walked in, noting Mike’s glare at the wall opposite. The man reached as far as he could and pressed the button for the lobby. The doors shut again and with a cheerful ding the elevator was off again. Mike slipped out of his state and glanced towards the couple by the doors. The woman instinctively inched closer to her husband and grasped his arm. Mike sighed and checked his phone to see if he had any other interviews today. Nothing, not even any new job openings that he hadn’t already tried out for and failed. Mike had nothing to look forward to tonight except cold pizza leftovers and some water from the tap, real filling. The elevator dinged again and Mike got off in the lobby. It was time for the long walk home.


	2. Chapter 2

Mike slouched on his living room couch, watching the lame soap opera that seemed to be the only thing on the channel. Mike had lost the remote for the tv and the thing was so cheap that he couldn’t change channels without it. It’s not like there’s anything else left to watch that will bring him out of this depressed slump. At least the soap was so lame that it occasionally made him smirk at the over exaggeration presented by the two lovers. Vlad and Clara, fighting against all odds; her oppressive step-father, her mother’s disapproval at Vlad’s condition, Vlad’s poor income. ”The drama! The suspense! The intrigue! Tune in next time.” The screen went to static, the only other show besides the soap operas. Mike leaned his head back and sighed, “Another day another interview.” He said aloud. He glared at the floor where his neighbors below were blasting their game sounds.  
“Call of Duty: Black Ops again tonight eh? He said, not caring how probably mentally unhealthy it was to talk to himself. “Don’t you think you’ve been playing enough-yawn-video games this week?” A yawn interrupted his nightly musings,  
“Jeez I’m tired, you guys think I’ll be able to sleep over your noise tonight?” Mike called through the floor. An explosion sounded alongside screams of pain from the game. Mike mentally shook his head and laid himself down onto the couch. He shut his eyes and tried to shut out all thoughts from his head, and focus on keeping his thoughts compliantly blank. But random thoughts surfaced in his mind and he couldn’t rest, all night he tossed and turned thoughts about Brody and the way Hanna had looked at him. It bothered him for some reason, he couldn’t figure out why. He decided that he’d turn the TV back on and try to focus on the white noise so that he could maybe fall back asleep. He stood up and pressed the button to turn on the TV again. However, instead of the static that usually greeted him after the soaps, a merry jingle was playing. March of the Toreadors Mike recalled, the jingle of the old pizzeria that had closed down a few years ago after five brutal murders. Children Mike thought, he remembered the curfew that the town enforced after that, anyone caught out of their house after dark under the age of 16 without a reason such as work or something similar, was either brought to their house or to the police station. Mike remembered how the curfew had forced him to miss an interview with the garage shop, the one job that Mike had thought he had a chance of making. “One failure in a sea of hundreds, no biggie” Mike thought. And watched the advertisement play out. “ Hi kids!” Said the mascot of the restaurant, Freddy Fazbear. “ Guess who’s coming back to town? If you guessed Freddy Fazbear and his crew then you’re right! We will be returning in one two weeks so get ready to sing and dance but most importantly, enjoy some pizza with the crew!” Mike groaned at how cheesy, no pun intended, ridiculous, and stupid the whole thi- wait what did it say? Mike sat up and listened, “ And if anybody out there is looking for a job as head night guard of our fine facility then come on over! No interview necessary! We will require a background check, of course but anyone has a good chance at this position so don’t hesitate because there’s only room for one more in the Fazbear family! Call us at 425-faz-bear that’s 425-faz-bear. See you all soon and don’t forget to come back for more!”  
The commercial ended with the jingle and then the screen returned to static. Mike sat in shock, a job as a night guard, no interview, he could work late nights. It wasn’t like he got much sleep anyways. He’d always been a night owl anyways, he had no social life either, so he couldn’t really miss out on anything. The only problem was the background check, he didn’t have the cleanest of records and there wasn’t much he could do about it. He’d just have to wing it and hope that they would allow him to, ugh, join the Fazbear family. He might never be able to show his face in public again but at least he didn’t have to stand up there and sing with the robots. Mike sighed and dialed the number the commercial had provided.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapters a bit shorter. I’ll make it up in the next few.


	3. Chapter 3

Mike nervously pushed the glass doors open. The restaurant was empty and silent. But Mike felt a strange tension in the air like the place was holding its breath in anticipation.   
“Anticipation for what?” Mike asked aloud. Footsteps sounded down the hall to his left. A man rounded the corner holding a black tablet he looked up and saw Mike standing there with his hands behind his back. He smiled and held his hand out,   
“Hi there, I’m assuming you’re Mik-eel Schmidt?” Mike smothered his anger at the name and smiled back,   
“It’s Mikeal and yes I’m here for the interview.” Mike shook his hand and stood awkwardly as the man checked his tablet for something. Mike tried to covertly check to see what the man was looking at. Before he could the man closed it and looked back up at Mike. “Looks like your record is...slightly stained so to speak.” Mike sighed, all the way here just to be turned down at the door. “At least it tried.” Mike thought and prepared himself. “Luckily that won’t be a problem here seeing that we don’t have valuables or anything you could really get away with.” Mike looked up in shock. Did he-did he just? The man continued,   
“So I’ll show you around, show you the office, and we’ll see if you’ll take to the job eh?” The man walked towards the stage, Mike followed in mute disbelief.   
”Would he really just accept him like that? There’s no way, it has to be a trick.” Mike thought. But the man seemed sincere and honest about his intention to hire him. Mike felt like he’d been handed a million dollars.   
“This here is Freddy Fazbear the lead singer and mascot of the pizzeria. On his left is Bonnie the guitarist and to his right is Chica the backup singer. The kids usually provide most of the music.” The man has a faint smile on his face like he was recalling some distant memory.   
“Were you an old customer?” Mike asked, solely for the purpose of acting like he cared. He really couldn’t care less about the man, if he was stupid enough to hire him then he wasn’t someone he needed to know. The man turned around and nodded still off in memory lane,   
“Yea I was a big fan. Probably helped me get the job if you know what I mean.” The man winked at him, Mike caught the hint.   
“ I’m an old customer too.” Mike sort of lied. He had been here before, once. The worst day of his life, he had never been able to erase it from his memory. The man was talking but Mike wasn’t really listening to him anymore. He was hearing screams and shrieks of metal. “-that one I don’t think will be coming back,” the man was saying, “Too much money to fix and too much hassle. But hey, maybe the kids will miss him and force management to bring Foxy back.” Mike shook himself out of his memory and continued to follow the man.   
“Uh, I didn’t catch your name...sir.” Mike called as he jogged to catch up. The man stopped and smacked his head in mock disbelief,   
“Where are my manners, I’m Chase Allen.” He held his hand out again and Mike stopped confused. Mr. Allen brought his hand back and laughed,   
“Just messing with ya kid.” Mike bristled and almost shouted at him, but managed to restrain himself.   
“I’m just about as old as you do if I’m a kid…” Mike cut himself off, so much for restraining himself. Fortunately, Mr. Allen laughed and shook his head.   
“Nice one, I’ll have to remember that.” He said and walked down a long hallway. Mike hesitantly followed him, wondering if he should’ve picked this job. It was so far the only one who had seemed like he might get hired for despite his...record, so it wasn’t like he had a choice. Mr. Allen stopped by the end of the hall near an open doorway that didn’t seem to have a door.  
“This here is our state of the art security office. Outfitted with light in the halls and half-inch steel security doors. You can monitor the entire facility through our advanced camera system and speak through the loudspeaker in any room.” Mr. Allen boasted proudly,   
“ The only problem is that all the money that was usually spent making the room a decent size was spent on the tech sooo...the office is more like a broom closet with a desk and chair.” Mike entered the room after Mr. Allen has exited on the other side of the office.   
“Why are there two doorways and halls? And why are they so long?” Mike asked. Mr. Allen raised his finger and said one word,   
“Me.” Mike raises his eyebrow at the man's short response.   
“I figured that if the guard was trapped in the office by an armed assailant, it wouldn’t do if he could just stand by the door until the building ran out of power. So I supplied the idea of putting the office down two halls so if someone were to chase you towards the office, you could simply close the door and walk out the other side.” Mr. Allen beamed at his description of his genius.   
“What if there’s two of them?” Mike asked. Mr. Allen took in a breath and paused with his mouth open like he forgot what he was going to say.   
“Call someone?” He said and shrugged.  
“And what do you mean by if the building runs out of power?” Mr. Allen winced,  
“Well you see, it’s too expensive to have the building run on full power during the night, so during the day the building dedicates part of its power to a big battery. All the power used during the night comes from that battery, we figured you wouldn’t use that much during the night so we basically have the office run off of the battery.” Mike’s eye twitched,   
“And what if I get hurt if someone breaks in?” He asked, a little bit frustrated that the managers would limit his power and risk his life for a little extra money.  
“Well, that’s what this contract is for.” Said Mr. Allen and held out his tablet. On the screen, a document showed space for an electronic signature. Mike’s eyes widened, this was it. This was the end of his poverty and disgrace. He could finally mean something instead of the guy who couldn’t hold a job. Mike, skimmed over the contract not really letting the words get through him. Mr. Allen held out a stylus and Mike gently took it like it was the most precious thing on earth. He signed his name, on a work contract, getting a job, finally. Mr. Allen took the tablet and stylus back and patted Mike on the back. Mike didn’t even move away from the unwanted contacts. He was absolutely stunned that he now had an income.   
Mr. Allen laughed at the flabbergasted look on his new coworker’s face.  
“See you tomorrow night kid.” He said and guided Mike out the door. Mike just stood there outside the doors, not trespassing because he worked there, he worked there. Such sweet words, he needed to go and see if he could afford some coffee for tomorrow night when he worked. Mike was giddy all the way back to his apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

Mike was early, way early for someone working the night shift. He was standing and waving at the front doors for a while before he realized that most likely nobody was inside. Mike sighed and walked around to the side of the building, ”Already screwing up my new job I suppose.” He said. “I really outta get out of this habit of talking to myself when I’m alone,” Mike said to himself. “I should talk to somebody about it.” he mused. “But on the other hand, I hate everyone and don’t want to talk to anyone but myself. But returning to my other hand, I also hate myself so I can’t use that excuse. Why don’t I stop hating everyone you ask? Well, my good man, it's simple, everyone who knows me doesn’t give me a chance, and everyone who doesn’t know me knows someone who knows me. So clearly I have no choice but to hate them. Don’t you remember us talking about it before? All the time we always talk about how much of a mistake you are and about how much you don’t deserve to let anyone near you. SHUT UP! No, Mikey, I won’t shut up, I never will. I will always be here for you, the only person who will ever be here for you. Just accept it, it’s who you are.” 

“ And it’s who you always will be.”

Mike came to leaning against the wall on the side of the restaurant. His legs and arms were covered in small bruises and ached like he was pinched all over. Mike stood up, his knees and elbows popping after being forced in that position for so long. Wait, what time was it? It was dark out enough that he was sure that midnight had either passed or was close. His shift started at 12:00 and he didn’t have a watch to tell the time. The old one that his grandfather had given him had run out of power a long time ago, and Mike didn't have the money to get it changed. He cursed and dashed to the side of the building and looked through the doors. The only light came from down the hall by the office. Mike knocked on the doors and waited for whoever was there to let him in. After a few long seconds, Mr. Allen came around the corner with his beaming smile on his face and looking oddly relieved. He swiped a card over a black scanner above the door handle and let Mike in.  
“Hey, kid you’re early! Welcome back.” The man greeted with false enthusiasm, he seemed stressed and kept wringing his hands and looking back towards the light in the office.  
“I’m early?” Mike asked, “What time is it?”  
“11:38 give or take a few seconds.” Mr. Allen replied.   
“You've already seen the place so I’ll just show you to the office.” The shorter man seemed incredibly nervous and high-strung. He looked like a puppy rolling in the grass in the middle of the day would scare the daylights out of him. Mr. Allen walked briskly down the hall and Mike slowly walked after him shouldering his duffel bag of “nighttime necessities” as he mentally called it.   
Mr. Allen reached the door and immediately went inside. Mike curiously followed and watched the man check the camera system, it was set to view the show stage, the animatronics were sitting still and staring ahead into the blackness. The man breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Mike.   
“Listen, kid, management can’t hear us now since the power to their microphones is shut off. It’s so much worse then you could imagine here, just try to make it to opening time kay? As soon as we can get a steady income we can spend more money on safety. Just…” Mr. Allen stopped himself and pressed his hands to his forehead. Mike was unsettled, what did he mean by making it?   
“I’m sorry to drag you into this kid, just do your best and pray for 6 AM.“ Mr. Allen checked his watch and paled.   
“It’s almost twelve I have to go, listen to my brother okay? ...goodbye.” With that strangely final parting, the man practically ran out the door. Mike watched the man make his way down the hall and turn the corner through the cameras. He pulled the door open and started running for his car, halfway there he remembered to lock the doors and turned back. Mike watched as the guy made his way back and swipe his card over the scanner. Then Mike swore he could hear the slightest creak down the hall. Over the cameras he watched as Mr. Allen jerked like someone had grabbed him from behind, he dropped the keycard and ran for his car. Mike was absolutely shocked at how the man was acting. Until he switched the camera back to the show stage. Mike, from that day and for the rest of his days that he spent breathing, would swear on his own grave that he saw the bunny character turn his head away from the front doors and toward the camera. 

Mike was frozen in shock, quite the opposite reaction to Mr. Allen’s frantic scramble away. And now Mike understood why. These things were active for some horrible reason. Was this some kind of prank or something? “It has to be some kind of prank. The must be set to remote control or something.” Mike said aloud, “But Mr. Allen's reaction seems too realistic to be fake. He’s either a really good actor, or he’s not in on it. But why would they try to scare me like this? Probably because they’re trying to scare you away from the job. Why would they want someone like you working for them.” Mike covered his mouth, he couldn’t afford to lose focus now. They might be filming his reaction so he couldn’t be weak now. 

Mike switched through the camera’s but didn’t see anybody trying to hide, they had to be in view of the animatronics in order to be able to control them. But he couldn’t find them anywhere near the show stage unless they were hiding under a table. Mike heard a loud BANG come from down the left hall. Mike jumped and almost knocked the computer off the small desk. He peeked his head down the hall but didn’t see anything. He checked the left side of the facility and saw that the kitchen camera was down. A message at the top of the screen read, “CAMERA DISABLED, AUDIO ONLY”. That camera was not disabled ten seconds ago. “What is going on?” Mike practically yelled. He stood up and walked down the hall, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Hey! You guys just broke the camera if you didn’t know! Company’s gonna make you pay for that!” No response. “HEY!” Mike yelled again. He walked towards the kitchen and peeked inside. The place was empty, everything was put away neatly and the place was spotless. All was normal except for the camera up in the corner of the room, it was sparking and hanging from its mount in the ceiling. It looked like the thing was smashed with a baseball bat or something. It wasn’t just damaged or disabled, it was destroyed. Mike whirled around, he had heard a sound behind him. Like a table or chair being scraped on the tile floor. Mike walked out of the kitchen and screamed at the top of his lungs.

Chase Allen was driving like a madman, he was trying to get as far away from the pizzeria as he could. That place was scary at night, and since his brother had worked there, he had heard horrible stories from him. At first, he hadn’t believed him, but then he disappeared without a trace. Chase had applied for the company in an attempt to find out what had happened to his older brother. But he hadn’t found anything, not even a hint at what had happened to him. He eventually learned, however, that there was something strange about the animatronics. They had always found things moved around in the morning. The engineers had waved off it all, claiming that they had to move around at night to prevent joints from locking up. 

But that didn’t explain how they once found four chairs arranged in a circle around a table, with the animatronics still in them. They had activated them and, by default settings, they returned to the show stage. Chase knew that they must have been haunted or something, he knew about the murders and had come up with his own wild theory. But it was so crazy-sounding that it must have been his other theory, that there was some seriously dedicated employee who was determined to scare everybody. It seemed much more likely, but at the same time, Chase knew. He knew, down in his very own bones, that the children must be haunting the robots. And they wanted something, they wanted it very badly. All Chase needed to know was what it was


	5. Chapter 6

Mike took the corner into the office at full sprint. The soles on the bottom of his worn shoes had to be smoking with how fast he took off after he saw what was there. It was the bunny character, it was standing just outside the door. It had its hand outstretched to grab Mike as he exited the kitchen. Mike's jumpy habits, however, saved probably his life. As soon as he stepped out the door he was sprinting for the office even before he knew what he was running from. As soon as Mike made it to the office he slammed the button to shut both doors. He bent over and dry heaved, but nothing came up. Mike stood there for a minute catching his breath. His mind caught up with what had happened just moments ago and he began to panic again.   
“What. The. Hell was that?” Mike said, “Why was that dude moving around? He said they moved but I thought they just twitched occasionally. I have to call him or something. Crap I forgot I don’t have his number.” Mike stood up and almost lost it again, his power was at 67%. Mike opened the doors as fast as he could, he couldn’t afford to waste power now. Mike now realized how dangerous everything was now. He had to literally fight for his life every night in order to get his wage.  
“This is crazy, I’ll need to go talk to that guy tomorrow. He can’t just withhold information like this! Doesn’t he know? Of course, he does, he works here, they must’ve hired me because of my record. They must think that nobody would miss him if he died. But why do they treat him like this?” Mike caught himself again. He was talking to himself in the third person again. For some reason he was having some serious relapse, he needed to talk to someone. But everyone was gone, it was too late for that now. Mike just had to hope that it was just temporary. He needed to focus himself it was imperative that he didn’t lose consciousness like before.   
“It‘s life or death.” Mike chuckled, “Never thought that saying would actually apply to me.” 

Mike flipped through the cameras, the bunny was in the main party room, the rest of them were still on the stage. They just stared ahead into nothing, not showing any sign of emotion or sentience. “Maybe it’s just the bunny that-“ Mike was interrupted by the phone ringing. He stared at it for a second before picking it up.   
“Uh hello? Fazbear secu-“ Mike was cut off by another voice from the phone.  
“Hello, hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine. So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week. Okay?”  
Mike was stunned, was this what Mr. Allen meant by listening to his brother?

“Uh, let's see, first there's an introductory greeting from the company that I'm supposed to read. Uh, it's kind of a legal thing, you know. Um, ’Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced.’”

Mike started to roll his eyes at the cheesy introduction but then froze as what he had said hit him.   
“Missing person report?” He squeaked.

“Blah blah blah, now that might sound bad, I know, but there's really nothing to worry about. Uh, the animatronic characters here do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No. If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath? I'd probably be a bit irritable at night too. So, remember, these characters hold a special place in the hearts of children and we need to show them a little respect, right? Okay.”

“So, just be aware, the characters do tend to wander a bit. Uh, they're left in some kind of free roaming mode at night. Uh...Something about their servos locking up if they get turned off for too long. Uh, they used to be allowed to walk around during the day too. But then there was The Bite of '87. Yeah. I-It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, you know?”  
Mikes jaw dropped, he was too young to remember the Bite when it had happened, and how could they guy talk about the Bite so casually. The company had tried to cover it up but something like that couldn’t be ignored. The public rages when the incident had happened and the early incarnation of the brand name had closed down.

“Uh, now concerning your safety, the only real risk to you as a night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won't recognize you as a person. They'll p-most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on. Now since that's against the rules here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, they'll probably try to...forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit. Um, now that wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't filled with crossbeams, wires, and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area. So, you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort...and death. Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh.”

Mike sat silently, it wouldn’t be a peaceful painless death. He would suffer as he died, but it’s what he deserved, wasn't it? 

”Y-Yeah, they don't tell you these things when you sign up. But hey, the first day should be a breeze. I'll chat with you tomorrow. Uh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. Alright, goodnight.”

Mike sat in a silent, calm, shock. So much had happened in the last few minutes that he had to process it all. So what he knew was, these animatronics were out to kill him. Some recognition software issue that made them see him as an...endoskeleton. It made sense that endoskeletons shouldn’t be lying about, they were pretty creepy and could scare children. But it didn’t make sense that the animatronics should enforce those rules. They’ve handed the blame to the robots, that doesn’t seem very honest. Then again, neither was management. Or anybody here for that matter, the phone person, guy whatever. He seemed like he knew what was going on, Mike needed to try to locate the guy to see if he could give him any more information. But for now, he had a job to do.


	6. Chapter 6

A clang sounded in the hall to his left. Mike responded by closing the corresponding door. It wasn’t too bad, the worst part was the stress and the risk. It was 4 AM, and the building was at 30% power. Mike didn’t think he was losing terribly, as long as he refrained from using the cameras too much he might be good. He didn’t really need to use them all that much, he only used them to quickly check if any of the other creepy robots decided to get after him. So far the bunny character was the only one that moved. He tried not to dwell on what would happen if the others got up and joined the hunt. He dwelled on it anyways, he felt like the “game” would be completely unfair if the other two joined. They could just stand at each door until he ran out of power. He didn’t have nearly enough to last the whole night with just one door closed. He needed to have a look at that office battery, maybe management would let him tinker with it and try to raise the power capacity. Also, why did the doors use power when closed? That made no sense, all of this was making Mike very suspicious as to what management might be trying to do. “It’s like they’re deliberately trying to make this as hard as possible for me like they’re trying to kill me. But that doesn’t really narrow down the list, does it? There’s a lot of people who’d like to see you dead. And you don’t really blame them, do you? No, you don’t because you know they’re right to hate you, after what you did.” Mike came about on the floor again, it seemed that he had passed out again and fell off the chair. He had a splitting headache from landing head-first onto the hard tiles. Then he remembered where he was. Mike shot up, his head complaining from the sudden movement, and scanned his surroundings. He was safe for now, the bunny seemed to be in the backroom. The night guard stretched his back and looked at the digital-analog clock on the desk. The minutes place on the clock screen were glitched out and broken, the LEDs flickering on and off. Only the hours place was visible, a red five glowed steadily in the light from the overhead light and the one coming from his right. The Mike froze, he turned and saw the light gleaming steadily in the long hallway to his right. He had left it on all the while he was passed out on the floor. Mike turned to check the power and his heart dropped into his stomach. %5 power left, who knows how much time left until 6 AM. Mike was royally screwed, in a major way. He immediately turned off the light and unplugged the fan on the desk just in case. He couldn’t turn off the overhead light seeing that it was automatic turned on after 11:30 PM. Mike could only hope that the bunny would stay in the backroom. If he got near, Mike would only have a few seconds of power after he shut the door. A metallic squeak came from the hall to his right. The bunny hadn’t come down that hall yet, for some reason he was content with approaching with the left side. Mike hopped to his feet and looked down the hall, not going to waste any power checking the camera. As soon as he peeked his head out the hall, he immediately regretted it. The chicken one was after him too, it’s bright yellow coloring made it clearly visible against the darkness of the rest of the building. Its eyes shifted from staring at some space to the left, to Mike’s own eyes. He froze for a second, not believing at first what he saw. Then his instincts kicked in and he pulled his head back into the office. Mike was breathing hard as if to make up for the breathing he might not be doing very soon. He wasn’t ready to die, not after he just got back on the path to set his life straight. He wasn’t going to die yet, not by something else’s hand. If he was going to go out, it was gonna be on his terms. “Come at me you bastards,” Mike muttered under his breath, as he opened his duffel bag, “Come at me with all you got.” Bonnie sat in the back room, in a depressed haze. “Another one gone, why did they reopen this place again? Do they not remember what happened? I hate this, why do we-” he was cut off with a harsh buzzing in his head. He froze, as long as the power was still on, the night*murderer*guard needed to be hunted. “You cannot afford to lose.” said the voice in his head, in all their heads. A small buzzing forced Bonnie to stand up and join the hunt again. Tonight, there would be blood on their hands, again. Mike was ready, he had prepared a few surprises for the robots as soon as they got close. Mike almost didn’t until he remembered he hated them. That made it a lot easier to set up the bright stunning flash he created from some scrap in his bag. He had brought along several bits and pieces of odds and ends that he had been collecting and keeping to tinker with when he was bored. And he was bored, a LOT. Mike aimed the flash at the left doorway and held out his thick, black flashlight that he’d had since he was a kid. Mike was ready, so to speak, for Freddy. He snickered at his own joke there and checked the power percentage, 1%. He pretended to cock his flashlight like a shotgun and aimed it at the door. If he was right, and he sincerely hoped he was. The animatronics had a light-adjusting feature in their heads that almost instantly reacted to changes in light. The keyword there was almost, there was a slight delay, not a huge one. But if he had set the electronic buzzer correctly, it would open the electrical current to the flash turning it on, then as soon as it detected that it was on, it would shut off the current turning the flash off. Then as soon as it detected that it had shut off, it would turn back on again. Repeating until either the flashbulb burned out or until Mike turned it off. The whole thing was triggered by a small pedal from a sewing machine. When he stepped on it, it would turn on, when he stepped off vice versa. It was simple but deadly contributing to the fact that when the robot’s light adjusters sensed a change in light, it took about a half a second to react. The flash should turn on and off at about one-eighth of a second. Long story short, it would overload their vision causing that part of their motherboard too, hopefully, start to short out. Then they should automatically shut down to preserve their systems. Hopefully, they shut down, he didn’t want to be fired for damaging the mascots. Then again, they did try to stuff him inside a metal suit not meant to be worn by soft and squishy people like him. So he wouldn’t really shed a few tears if they accidentally caught on fire. Mike almost felt bad for them. Bonnie almost felt bad for him. His plan was to just stand by the door until he closed it and drained all his power. Then Freddy would come by and finish the job. After that the buzzing would take over his body and everyone else’s, it would do the actual stuffing. It had learned after they had absolutely refused to stuff them before. Even after the buzzing had tried to force them to. It just wasn’t in them to directly kill them, they could knock them out but actually hurting someone was against their original programming. He reached the door and froze, there was some kind of contraption set up by the door. A big lightbulb set on a telescoping pole with a wire connected to it leading to a small box on the floor. Connected to that was a small pedal with a foot on it. Bonnie looked up at the owner of the foot, he was smiling. “Open wide motherfu-“ that was all that Bonnie heard before a blinding flash lit up his entire vision. It flashed too quickly for his processors to keep up. He was going to explode if he didn’t look away. He tried to turn away, but the buzzing forced him back. He tried to fight through the light but his systems were automatically shutting down. He stumbled around before hitting the wall hard and sliding to the floor in the corner. As his systems were shutting down he heard a faint power down sound and saw the light in the office go dark plunging the whole building into darkness. Powering the last burst of light in the flash was too much for the battery. The office finally shut down and the whole place was dark. The bunny robot had collapsed in the corner after doing a lot of stumbling around and hitting things. It had tried to run away but it looked like it had changed its mind halfway there. The poor thing was shut down and it’s internal fans were whirring to cool down its interior. If Mike had a bit more time, he could link up his extra flashlight batteries into the flash. But now all he could do was wait. The clock was dead now since the office power was gone. All Mike could do now was hope that it turned 6 before the others got to him. He sat in silence for a while, nothing was happening. Then he heard footsteps, from the left hall. Then one of the creepiest things to ever happen to him just happened. Two glowing eyes appeared in the doorway, a familiar jingle started up, March of the Toreadors. The eyes flashed in sync with the music as Mike counted down the seconds of his life. In the middle of the song, Freddy abruptly stopped the music box and the lights. Mike heard quick footsteps right in front of him and right as he was about to scream for his life. He heard bells, bells coming from the loudspeakers everywhere. Mike was shocked, death hadn’t descended upon him so he concluded that he must still be alive. He turned on his flashlight, and watched the retreating form of Freddy Fazbear himself. Following him was the bunny robot. “They must be on some kind of timer or something.” Mike stood up and followed them from behind. They showed no reaction or emotion at him following them. Mike ran ahead of them and walked backwards to face them as he talked. “What’s up, guys? Sorry about the blue-balling there. I’m sure you really wanted to get your hands on me but,” he raised his hands in an I don’t know gesture, ”Alas.” Neither robot even looked at him or indicated that they saw him. Mike stood to the side and watched them walk past, then climb onto the stage and freeze in their positions. Mike was alive, and he had a manager to speak to.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry 'bout how short this is. Dunno what I was thinking anyways. Just a friendly reminder to comment on anything you like or dislike about the story 'aight? Cool, enjoy.

When Chase arrived at the pizzeria, he spotted Mike standing on the other side of the doors. And the tall man did not look happy. Chase didn’t know what was worse, dealing with a corpse roughly stuffed inside an animatronic suit and the paperwork afterward. Or dealing with the living persons rage and threats, and trying to either buy them out or threaten them to silence. And Mike definitely didn’t seem like the kind to threaten into silence. Hopefully he’d accept a decent amount of money to keep silent. One of the main reasons they’d hired him was because of his dishonest past. He would be easier to buy off and would be likelier to accept money to keep quiet. Chase reached into his pocket to pull out his keycard, but froze when he realized it wasn’t there. He turned to check if it had fallen out in his car, Mike knocked on the door and pointed to the ground. Chase’s face burned with embarrassment and scooped up the keycard from the ground. He swiped it over the scanner and unlocked the building.  
“Do you know how frustrating it is to stare at that card all night?” Mike asked casually. Chase awkwardly stood by the door raking his hands through his hair nervously.  
“So...quiet night?” Chase asked, trying to lighten the mood. Mike stopped and turned around, he stared at Chase until the man started to sweat under his glare.  
“I-I guess not eh?” Chase tried lamely. Mike walked towards Chase and placed his hand on his shoulder.  
“No no, you’re right. It was a quiet night, the killer robots didn’t speak much. Except Freddy, but he just played his music.” Mike smiled, and squeezed his shoulder, hard. Then he turned around and started walking away.  
“W-Wait, you ran out of power? How did you surv-” he cut himself off before he caused himself more trouble. Mike turned and gave him a look. Chase almost reflexively made the sign of the cross over his body. The creepy man turned back around and walked away again. Chase shivered and went into the building.  
Mike was furious, how dare that man have the nerve to ask him how he survived? Did he think him incapable of walking away? And judging by his reaction, he knew. He knew that they were going to come after him. And he didn’t even warn him. Mike didn’t have a number or address to speak to whoever managed that freak show that they call the “happiest place on earth”. So there was nobody to vent his rage on. And he needed an output soon or he might let loose on someone or something that didn’t deserve it. Last time that happened...well he had apologized. And to be frank, they kinda deserved it. I mean, who looks at someone like that? Definitely someone who deserves to have his elbow joint replaced.


	8. Chapter 8

Mike pushed open the doors to the RadioShack down the street. The only other person there was some guy behind the counter who looked relieved to have anybody there that day. Mike walked up to the counter and leaned on it,  
“I need a portable soldering iron, three car batteries, 10 meters of insulated copper wire, and two industrial floodlights.” The man blinked and leaned back,  
“Well we got the soldering iron and the wire, but I don’t think we have any floodlights or car batteries in stock. You tryna build somethin’?” The man was clearly curious as to why Mike needed such random objects, but seeing as to how he wasn't directly involved in Mike’s...project. He felt no need to include him in the details.  
“I’m trying to build a hover car so I can fly over the Pentagon waving the United States flag and blasting American Pie by Don Mclean.” Mike replies abruptly. The man threw his head back and laughed from his belly.   
“You don’t understand, I wasn’t joking.” Mike deadpanned. The man stopped laughing and paused hesitantly, Mike stared him in the eye, unblinking. The man turned quickly and left into the back.  
“The soldering irons to your right.” He called through the closing door. Mike strolled over to the rack holding the irons.   
“Eighty-two dollars!?” Mike exclaimed in his head. “That’s almost everything I have with me!”. He’d have to pull a fast one, it was time to get a bit creative. Just in time, the man passed through the door holding a spool of black wire.   
“Twenty-four ninety-eight.” He called and then looked up. Mike was closely examining the soldering iron and measuring it with his fingers. He muttered under his breath and then jerked his head towards the man like he had just noticed him. The man jumped and set the cable on the counter quickly.   
“Th-the price for the wire is twenty-four nin-ninety-eight.” He stuttered, starting to sweat. Why was he staring at him like that? He nervously thought as Mike strides quickly towards the counter. The man leaned back cringing as Mike snatched up the wire, examining it like he had the soldering iron. The man wrung his hands and watched as Mike narrowed his eyes and looked closer at a “flaw” in the wire.   
“The wire is poking through the insulation. Imperfect workmanship.” Mike whispered, barely audible. The man leaned in closer to hear Mike better, then practically leaped five feet into the air when Mike slammed the spool back onto the table.  
“You expect me to purchase this? This wire is barely functional. Hardly useful for anything but a paperweight.” Mike hissed. The man stepped backward, ”This man couldn’t be stable.” He thought. Mike leaned in close to the man’s ear. He had to practically crawl on top of the counter to reach his bald head.  
“Do you really think I’ll be able to create an airborne vehicle capable of circling the Pentagon itself with this inferior wire?” He whispered.  
“I’ll answer the question for you considering that since you’d sell this kind of wire, you’re most likely incapable of understanding basic functionalities, like answering a question.” Mike leaned back into his feet and looked the man in the eye. He then paused, waiting for a second before he yelled at the top of his lungs. “THE ANSWER IS NO!” The man fell backwards onto his rear. Mike hopped the counter and landed next to him. He crouched and spoke in a conversational voice, “Do you think you could get me some decent wire?” The man nodded as fast as he could, eager to appease the crazy man. He stood and brushed himself off before heading into the back room again. Mike quickly hopped back over the counter, accidentally knocking over a display of metal keychains. He took the wire out and set it outside by the doors, out of sight of the interior. He arrived back at the counter and held his hand out for the wire. The man nervously handed him a new spool of wire and stepped back. Mike examined the wire and grunted, “Not even close to acceptable.” He declared and tossed the wire back to the man. He barely caught it and held it confusedly.   
“I’ll find someone else to buy some decent wire from. That will be all I require from you today.” Mike set the soldering iron on the counter and pulled out his wallet. The iron was scanned and placed in a plastic bag with the words, “Come again soon!” labeled in red along the front. Mike took the bag and left out the door, picking up the wire before he left. The man sighed in relief, he’d leave a note in the backroom to watch out for the creepy, crazy guy for the poor soul who had the next shift.  
Mike’s next errand was at the auto shop. He was hoping that they still had his car that had crashed a while back. He had accidentally veered off the road and into a tree trying to avoid some moron kid who’d run into the street after his basketball had rolled there. Mike’s insurance had barely kept him out of a lawsuit, the kid’s parents were those kind of people. But had left him with no money to fix his car. He had asked the shop if they could hold onto it for now, and if he didn’t have the money to fix it in five years, they could have it. Mike had given up hope on his car after day two, but now it seemed like it might just save his life now. He didn’t need the whole car, just the battery. Mike just hoped that the shop would allow him to take the battery if he offered to give the rest to them today. 

He finally arrived at the shop and was greeted by an electric whirring and the painful screech of metal being cut. It seemed as if someone was working in the body shop and did not know how to cut metal. Mike peered into the shop and was horrified to see some kid trying to cut a sheet of metal with a band saw. He tried to yell over the racket but the kid couldn’t hear him. Mike ran for the emergency off button and slammed it, slightly rocking the machine. The kid jumped at the loud screeching of the machines emergency brakes stopping the saw in its tracks. The kid stared at him through his safety goggles with wide eyes as Mike practically fumed at the kids inexperience.  
“Why are you cutting a sheet of aluminum with a BAND SAW! Don’t you know that that’s the number one way to either break your saw, lose an eyeball from flying metal which can pierce your safety goggles, or get your rear end on the power sander for EITHER ONE?!” The kids’ eyes widened even further and he stammered but not actually getting any words out. “What is going on here?” A slightly accented voice came from the office of the shop. Mike turned to see a Hispanic woman standing with her hands on her hips.  
“Why are you yelling at my nephew?” She demanded as she made her way around the machinery and towards Mike. Mike sensed a scolding headed his way and decided that he wasn’t about to take that.  
“Were you aware that your nephew here was attempting to cut through an aluminum sheet with a band saw? Or do you want to lose a nephew’s eyeball, a band saw, and your hearing?” The lady’s coffee-brown eyes narrowed and she turned to the poor boy who cowered by the band saw.  
“Is this true Santi? Did yo-“ she cut herself off and gasped as she saw the sheet on the bandsaw table mid cut.  
“Santiago Ramirez what were you thinking you silly-“ she continues her scolding in Spanish as she chewed out the boy. Mike started to feel bad for the kid, he couldn’t understand what his aunt was saying, but it definitely did not sound pleasant. She finally finished and caught her breath,   
“Now what did you need? Or did you just come here to stop this foolish boys racket?” Mike smiled and explained to her what he needed. When he finished she nodded her head,   
“Of course, you have the 1987 Cadillac Convertible? That eyesore has been sitting in our backyard for ages. I’d be good to finally be rid of it.” She beckoned him towards a door near the back and Mike followed. The door led to a fairly spacious dirt field filled with cars and car parts. She led him near the left side and showed him his car. The whole left front of the vehicle was crushed like a soda can where it had hit the tree and still had a bit of tree stuck in the hood. Mike tried to pry open the hood, but the thing was stuck. The lady, Esmerelda as she had introduced herself as along the way to the field, told him to stay there as she fetched a welding kit to cut the hood open. Mike slid his hand along the top of the car and said a silent farewell. That car had seen him through thick and thin, it was a shame to see it finally gone forever. She soon returned towing Santiago with her, presumably to show him how to properly cut metal. She adjusted a few knobs on the welder, lowered her welding mask, and fired it up. Her hand was steady as she slowly guided the small intense flame along the line where the seam between the car and hood should be. Santiago watched as she finished the cut, shut off the flame, and raised her hood to set the knobs to normal. She explained what she had done while the metal cooled enough for her to grab and raise the hood. Mike carefully removed the clamps on the battery while Esmerelda explained what each knob did on the welder. Mike lifted the battery and set it on the ground. He waited for her to finish her lecture to Santiago finish, then shook her hand. 

“Thanks for letting me come by and get this. If you have any other batteries you don’t have use for then let me know.” Esmerelda thought for a second then she said, “You know, I have another car that’s going into the junkyard that might have a recoverable battery. Let’s go take a look at it.” A little while later, Mike left the building carting two car batteries, a soldering iron, and his hard stolen wire. “It wasn’t really stolen,” Mike thought to himself, “ I left a nice rock in place of the wire, it weighs about as much as it so I’d say it was a fair trade. That guy was eager to get me out of there anyways.” Mike smiled, then dropped his smile and stepped on it when he remembered he had to get the floodlights too. He swore under his breath, he didn’t have enough arm cargo to carry two floodlights with everything else he was carrying. He just had to survive until he could get his hands on one. On the other hand, there was a construction site not too far from the pizzeria. He wondered if the workers had a spare or two he could borrow for the night.  
Mike arrives at the construction site and peeked around. He had already dropped off and...installed the equipment he had obtained during the day. He hadn’t slept nearly as much as he should’ve last night. He hadn’t gone to bed until 7AM and he had to get up at 1PM in order to get the supplies he needed. But all that preparation would go to waste if he couldn’t get the floodlights. He had spotted two of them that didn’t seem to be in use already, but had yet to find a single person. “It’s time to get creative again.” Mike thought, “Good thing I’m pretty damn creative.” Mike took a metal bar and stuck it in the ground near the two floodlights. He scrounged around until he found some rope, a safety vest and hard hat, and a hammer. He tied another metal bar across the other near the top, the rough edges helping him accomplish it, in a cross shape. Next he draped the vest onto the cross as if it were a scarecrow and then set the hat on the top. Finally, he tied the hammer to the end of the second bar as a finishing touch. He stepped back and admired his work, an impromptu construction supervisor.  
“Hello good sir, do you mind if I borrow these fine floodlights?” The short construction worker just stood there looking down.  
“Not much of a talker huh? How about, blink twice if I can have them, blink once if I-oh wait. Actually how about you stand completely still if I can have them.” The wind blew the hard hat sideways.   
“Oh well, I know what you really meant. Thank you so much!” Mike grabbed each light by the pole and rolled them towards the pizzeria. Mike temporarily wondered if he should knock down the scareworker and hide his tracks, but he came to his senses and decided it would be rude to knock the poor guy down. Mike started to get bored and so he struck up a conversation with himself again. He’d never blacked out while he was walking so he was safe. Probably.  
“That poor scareworker has had a tough enough life without his dad beating him down. We have something in common, I guess. Not our dad problems, but our tough life. But it’s mostly my fault, I mean how could someone have a hard life without having done something horrible. They can’t can they Mikey? Nobody can, especially not you. You’ll never amount to anything. You’ll only mess up this job, there’s nothing you can do to avoid it. You’ll never actually change anything for the better. You deserve to die.”  
Mike came to on the ground near the pizzeria. It appeared there was a first time for everything, Mike thought. He checked the floodlights for damage but found none. He got up and dusted himself off, accidentally brushing a bruise on his leg. The doors weren’t far away, and it seemed that Mr. Allen was still hanging around. Mike tipped the lights backwards to fit them through the door, they were quite tall. And it might’ve been his imagination, but the bunny character seems to wince at the sight of the huge lights. Mike froze and stared at the bunny, he didn’t make any further movements. Mike concluded that it must have been a trick of the light. They weren’t actually alive. Were they?


	9. Chapter 9

Bonnie watched as the night guard walked in carrying what seemed like a tall, wide lamp with two huge light bulbs on top tilted downwards. He winced as he thought of what the nightguard might be planning with such huge lights. The guard seemed to notice his wince since he froze and stared at him for a second. Bonnie and the others weren’t supposed to move before 12 AM, partially because of their programming deciding that 12 was when they needed to get moving to unlock their joints. Partially because the buzzing said that they couldn’t attack the guard too early, like they would if they had the chance. The only reason that they kept attacking the nightguards was because the buzzing forced them too. The one time that they’d outright refused to do it...well it wasn’t pretty. Bonnie preferred to not have to go through that again. The guard had made his way to his office, there was clanging and loud scraping coming from the office. Bonnie has no idea what to expect, except a lot of pain and light. He had no idea how he discovered that exploit in their systems, but it was terribly irritating. Just because he didn’t want to kill him, didn’t mean he couldn’t dislike him. Foxy would be very annoyed that the guard had found and used that light trick. It had always hurt him the most since his processor was slower. Hopefully they could kill this one quickly and the pizzeria would finally shut down.   
“Maybe they’ll finally scrap us for good.” Bonnie thought darkly, he hated dwelling on the bad side but sometimes it seemed like it was the only side that existed. The bells sounding the beginning of the night shift from the speakers overhead. It was time to move.

Mike had set up almost everything he needed, he had to do a little impromptu work and hook up a car battery to the building’s generator to charge it up. He had just retrieved the battery and connected it to the floodlight. He installed the flasher and sewing machine pedal to it and viola! He had his very first battery-powered animatronic repellant. He rolled the light out into the hall in perfect view from the hallway.  
“That should make bunny boy think twice about coming down that hall.” He mused aloud, however since he only had one other car battery he couldn’t link it up to the other floodlight. Or rather he didn’t, it took him a second to figure it out but he managed it. He connected the car battery to the building power and then had it route the extra power it collected to the office. He now had roughly an extra 10% of power. In the long run, that could save his life if one of them decided to stay at a door and drain his power. The extra ten would allow him enough time to drag the floodlight over to the opposite door and flash whoever was there. His face reddened as he thought that, the other kind of flash. He shook himself off and prepared himself for the phone call. He waited a moment hoping that the phone call would cue in right as he thought that, but it turned out that the “Phone Guy” wanted to let him wait a second. Mike leaned back in his chair, then almost fell out when the phone ringing startled him. 

"Uhh, Hello? Hello? Uh, well, if you're hearing this and you made it to day two, uh, congrats! I-I won't talk quite as long this time since Freddy and his friends tend to become more active as the week progresses. Uhh, it might be a good idea to peek at those cameras while I talk just to make sure everyone's in their proper place. You know…”

Mike took his advice as he peeked through the cameras. Sure enough the bunny was active, and prowling around the dining room.”

Uh... Interestingly enough, Freddy himself doesn't come off stage very often. I heard he becomes a lot more active in the dark though, so, hey, I guess that's one more reason not to run out of power, right? I-I also want to emphasize the importance of using your door lights. There are blind spots in your camera views, and those blind spots happen to be right outside of your doors. So if-if you can’t find something, or someone, on your cameras, be sure to check the door lights.”

“I got the doors covered my friend. But I appreciate your concern.” Mike replied energetically, the bunny had moved to stand down the hall. The chicken was nowhere in sight, presumably in the kitchen due to the noise from there.

Uh, you might only have a few seconds to react... Uh, not that you would be in any danger, of course. I'm not implying that. Also, check on the curtain in Pirate Cove from time to time. The character in there seems unique in that he becomes more active if the cameras remain off for long periods of time. I guess he doesn't like being watched. I don't know. Anyway, I'm sure you have everything under control! Uh, talk to you soon."

“So a new contestant eh? It doesn’t like being watched, I got that. But, what do you mean doesn’t like being watched? Is the little itty bitty killer robot shy?” Mike said that last part in a high-pitched baby voice. A snort came from the hall to his left, Mike spun in his chair and saw the bunny standing at the door covering his mouth in shock. Mike instinctively kicked out at the robot and hit it solidly in the stomach. It looked down at him in confusion then all of a sudden, anger. Intense hatred, it almost seemed like the bunny turned into someone else. It took a step forward and opened its mouth, a shriek started to build up in its voice box. It sounded like it was warping the normal sounds it made into a twisted scream, and Mike did not want to be a part of that. His kick had pushed him by the right side of the office and he decided to go all the way. He pushed himself out into the hall and hit the door button on the way out. He kicked off the wall outside the office leaving the bunny to stand in the office looking utterly confused. Mike laughed aloud at his face as he sailed down the hall.

Bonnie’s head hurt for various reasons. But none of them were because of the killer lights the night guard had brought. Upon seeing him face to face earlier, the buzzing had taken over his body temporarily and the next thing he knew, the night guard had shut him in the office and flew off down the hall in his wheely chair laughing all the way. Bonnie stood there dumbstruck as the residual heat and pain from the buzzing taking over slowly faded. He then shook his head and he couldn’t deny that there was a smirk on his face as he did so. The first real smile, in years probably, that guard was something.

Chica was just as confused as Bonnie was, but she didn’t know it. She thought her visual circuits had gone and fried as she watched the night guard zoom past her at dangerous speed on the office chair. He had slammed into a table and bounced off of it into a wall. She couldn’t help but wince as the sharp crack of impact as the plastic back of the chair hit the wall. Somehow, the vehicle and occupant were unharmed. In fact, it looked like the guard was grinning.  
“Fun.” he said, then realized he had an audience. His eyes widened as he saw the large yellow chicken standing just across the room. He kicked off the ground as fast as he could and skidded on two wheels around the corner. Chica hoped that Bonnie wouldn’t catch him, as far as she knew, he was down that hall. He seemed like a good guy, hopefully he would last. She couldn’t bear another person’s blood on her hands yet again.

Mike was out of breath, kicking his way backward down the hall had worn him out. He needed to get in shape otherwise those creepy robots could- no. It wasn’t healthy to dwell on the dark side, he needed to focus, to shut out everything else but his current task. It was the only way to survive, and he needed to use that way to his full advantage. He stealthily rolled down the hall and peeked through the window, spotting the bunny animatronic still staring at the door.  
“This feels all backward.” he thought as he slowly rolled into the office and picked the pedal off of the floor.  
“Hey bunny boyyy?” he called in a sing-song voice. The bunny jumped, but strangely didn’t turn around.  
“Hey,” he called again, this time it didn’t react so Mike assumed it was listening, “If you make your way out the door now, I won’t have to use this deadly weapon I have here and you can leave here without your visual processors overloaded. Does that sound nice? I know you’re sentient...somehow so you can understand when you need to cut your losses and run right?” The bunny started to walk in a circle around Mike to the open doorway, for some reason still keeping its head turned away from Mike. It walked out the door without a further problem or reaction. Mike was confused at its strange actions, why wouldn’t it look at him? Were its neck servos malfunctioning, they weren’t under any strain that he knew of so there should be no reason that it should do that. Mike considered the last and most disturbing possibility of the rabbits’ strange behavior.  
“I’m not that ugly am I?”

Bonnie knew that the buzzing couldn’t hear using his ears. It was connected to his vision so he theorized that if he didn’t look at the night guard, the buzzing wouldn’t force him to attack the guard. It was a long shot, but it was worth it if it worked, he inched around the guard keeping his head turned away. The guard didn’t make any attempt to attack him with that light again so he assumed he was allowing him to walk away safely. He didn’t know what to think of that, it amazed him that the guard didn’t try some cheap shot while he walked away, back turned. After all, he did try to kill him, but the guard just let him walk by, he needed to speak with the others about this. The guard knew they were alive.


	10. Chapter 10

Foxy was confused, he kept hearing rolling sounds like someone was dragging an office chair around and once he heard a loud crack like something broke. Were they dragging the night guard around in the chair? It was easier than dragging them by the leg like they usually did, but it did seem unorthodox. Foxy peeked his head out and was surprised to see Chica standing just outside the east hall and Bonnie walking out of the west hall looking ashamed. They walked to each other and began to whisper to each other, they hardly ever talked to each other anymore. What was causing them to act so weird? Chica was looking more and more confused as Bonnie talked so Foxy decided to see what the fuss was about.

Mike watched as the robots became more and more confused as the bunny talked. It seemed like the “character” from the pirates cove emerge from the curtains. He seemed to be a fox themed pirate.  
“Figures.” Mike sighed, he closed the cameras and leaned towards the west hall as he tried to listen in. He couldn’t hear anything other than a few indistinct noises, he was starting to get bored. When he wasn’t avoiding getting killed, the job was really boring.  
“HEY! HURRY IT UP I’M GETTING BORED HERE!” He yelled down the hall. Roughly two seconds later he realized how stupid that was, if they weren’t trying to kill him why should he provoke them? He was having too much fun, and when that happened he kind of stopped thinking. He opened that cameras and saw that they were all looking down the hall, what were they looking at? Mike opened the west hall camera and in the split second between seeing what was approaching and his foot slamming down on the pedal he though. “What the ever-living hell is that?”

Foxy dashed down the hall, the night guard provoking them was the last straw. First, he had tried to hurt Bonnie. Secondly, he had called him boring! Who was he to call the Master of the Seven Seas BORING? As he sprinted down the hall, his energy draining fast, he saw the strange contraption that had blinded Bonnie. But that ridiculous light trick wouldn’t, couldn’t beat pure speed. But the second he got close, he heard a loud stomp. And then the world lit aflame.

Mike knew the lights would be powerful, he didn’t know that they would light up the whole office and blind him as well. He covered his eyes but it was too late, a dark purple afterimage encompassed the entire inside of his eyelids. A loud crash and shrieking of bending metal came from the hallway. He took his foot off the pedal and opened his eyes. It took a few seconds of blinking but his eyes adjusted again. And in front of him was an absolute mess, the fox had crashed into the light and knocked it over. The pole was bent and one of the cages around the lights had been dented in. But as soon as the pole was straightened out, it would be just fine. The fox, on the other hand, was in much worse condition. It lay in a heap on the floor, several chunks of rusted metal had broken off and the hinge that allowed the eyepatch to flip up and down was snapped, preventing it from shutting completely as it was trying to do automatically. The fox seemed to be out for the count, it looked to be an older model so it could react differently to the light and the damage. Mike didn’t hear any fans going so he assumed they were either broken as well, or the thing didn’t have any. Mike preferred either one because both options would lengthen the time it took to cool down the older processors and lengthen the time the thing was down. 

Bonnie was shocked at the brightness of the flash, it had affected him a little bit as well as Chica. Both their fans had to kick in, but due to their proximity they weren’t terribly affected. Foxy on the other hand, seemed to be completely shut down. Bonnie would’ve gone to help him, but it seemed that the light flash hadn’t shut down the power again, and he wasn’t going to risk it. Not when he knew what was going to happen. He winced when he thought of how irritable Foxy was going to be later.

Mike checked the time, it was 5AM. 30% power left. He decided to close both doors and ride it out. He had more than enough power to last until 6AM. He scooted the chair into the west hall, rolled the floodlight and the cord into the office so he didn’t sever the cord, then kicked back and closed his eyes, choosing to catch up on his rest as opposed to having a staring contest with the robots through the window. He smiled and faded into sleep.

Chica hesitantly walked down the east hallway. Both doors were closed and Chica has drawn the metaphorical short straw to go see what the guard was doing. She inwardly winced at how loud her footsteps seemed. She made it to the window without incident and peeked inside. The night guard was...sleeping? He was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. Chica watched in confusion as the guard raised his hand and pinched his other arm. He pinched his leg with his other hand. Chica stared in horror as the guard pinched himself all over leaving dark bruises on his skin. It seemed like the guard was still in his sleep, but was hurting himself for some reason. He was scowling and wincing but kept his eyes closed the whole time. He started digging his fingernaiils into his arms deeply, not drawing blood, but enough that it would hurt for a while. Chica was absolutely stunned at the guards strange behavior. Bonnie startled her as he walked down the hall to see what was taking her so long. He gaped at the sight of the guard, scratches and bruises all over his body.  
“Should we do something?” He asked quietly.  
“What can we do?” Chica said, barely audible. “He’s behind the doors we can’t do anything until he runs out of power.” Chica was extremely distressed, she should be able to do something. She couldn’t just stand here while a kid - no, a full grown adult, not a kid. She couldn’t just stand by and do something while someone else was hurting themselves. Just then the bells signaling the end of the night sounded. The guard jerked awake and looked around. Chica tried to move out of view from the window but was blocked by Bonnie who was still too stunned to do anything. She turned in a panic and saw the guard staring back at her. It seemed for a split second that he had a scared look in his eyes. Like he’d been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to, then his expression hardened and he picked up the damaged floodlight. Chica squeaked and ran around Bonnie and made her way back to the stage. Bonnie froze up as his programming took over and guided him back to the stage as well. Chica made it back just in time for her programming to shut her down until she needed to move around during the day to free up her joints.

Mike was frustrated, first he had allowed himself to fall asleep on the job enabling his subconscious to take over. His therapist had suggested tying his hands to prevent him from hurting himself in his sleep. But then he woke up with his wrists rubbed raw, so he had to resort to putting himself in a straitjacket to stop himself. He had become quite talented at getting out of the jacket after a while. It was the only way he could sleep anymore, that and the sleeping pills helped. It was stupid of him to try to sleep without those. Mike left the building dragging the floodlight behind him and carting his duffel behind him. He needed a long nap. A long long nap.


	11. Chapter 11

Mike strolled into the auto shop carrying his duffel bag. He walked up to the counter where Santiago was taking a nap. Mike tapped the bell and Santiago shot up from his nap. His eyes widened again when he say Mike and he scrambled to go get his aunt. She walked in a few moments later, she had grease streaked on her face and hands.  
“Welcome back, those batteries work okay?” She asked conversationally.  
“They’re a life-saver.” Mike replied with a smirk, little did she know how literal he was being. “I’m in need of some more parts, I was hoping I could have some of the aluminum from my car. It’s for a...project...I have.”  
Esmerelda laughed and waved him through the back door, “I might as well give you back the car with how much you’re taking from it. Come on Santiago!” Her nephew jumped up and followed behind Mike, keeping his distance from him. She led him out to his car again and gestured for Santiago to go fetch the welding equipment. He dashed off and Mike was left alone with Esmerelda. He shuffled his feet and cleared his throat.  
“So what happened to Mr. Taylor? Is he on vacation or did he quit?” Mr. Taylor was the owner of the auto shop and was one of the few people in the town who tolerated him.  
“He moved to Colorado, said he had a bigger job opportunity there. He invited me to manage the place alongside. After he left, most of the people who worked here left immediately. All the rest only come in occasionally.”  
“Mr. Taylor left?” Mike was shocked, Jones Taylor always said he’d never leave his shop, quite literally too. He had an apartment here and usually only left to get groceries. Mike didn’t think he would leave ever. Just another person who cared about Mike only to leave, he thought darkly. Esmerelda noticed his sudden change in attitude but before she could say anything, Santiago came back toting the bag of welding equipment. He carefully set the bag down and started pulling out equipment. Mike was surprised when he started to twist the knobs and set the gas level like a seasoned welder. He lowered his welding mask and fired up the welder. He gestured for Mike to step aside and walked towards the car hood. Mike traced the area that he wanted cut and Santiago followed the stick he used to trace with exactness. Esmerelda was watching Santiago proudly, did she teach him this already? Last time he saw him he barely knew which end to hold the welding rod. And now he seemed as comfortable welding as he was walking. He finished the cut, shut off the welder, and raised the hood. He looked questionably at Esmerelda and she nodded, smiling. He smiled back and set the equipment back into the bag and carried it away.  
“Did you teach him all that last night?” Mike asked, he was genuinely impressed at how good the small kid was at the cut. Esmerelda turned to him and nodded absently.  
“He is a very talented boy. He has caught on with pretty much anything I’ve thrown at him. That boy is going places.”  
Mike froze, the last time he’d heard that…” Mike shook off the memory before he could get lost in it. Esmerelda was watching him carefully, she knew too much. You can’t come back here anymore, she’ll expose you. You’ll have to leave again, go NOW!

Mike swayed in place, he was feeling lightheaded. He was falling, Esmerelda caught him, she was strong but gentle. She was yelling at Santiago to call an ambulance, he was dizzy. His thoughts weren’t connecting. Esmerelda laid him on the ground and ran for Santiago, she shook him literally out of his daze. He ran for the phone, Mike tried to stand, he couldn’t move. 

He tried to raise his hand, say something. 

He couldn’t, he was useless, trying anything was pointless. It all ended in failure.

And this time if he failed, he would die.

But it was what he deserved wasn’t it.

It was loud, shouldn’t dying be peaceful and quiet?

There was noise. Sirens. Movement. They were picking him up. He was on a stretcher.

Just die…

Mike woke up in a hospital bed. There were various medical instruments connected to him. The heartbeat measuring thingy machine was beeping faster as Mike started to remember. He searched for the nearest alarm clock and sighed in relief. It was only 10:30, he had plenty of time to get to the pizzeria. Mike started to stand but a piercing headache shot through his skull and almost knocked him out again. He sat on the edge of the bed and shook his head. Mike immediately regretted it as the slightest movement stabbed a hot knife through his head. He balanced himself mentally, then he tried it physically. He slowly pushed himself up until he was in a standing position. A nurse walked in and gasped in shock at her patient trying to stand up.   
“No no, lay down. You aren’t ready to stand yet, you’ll hurt yourself more.” She gently pushed against Mikes’ chest and he fell backward onto the bed. The jarring landing caused another wave of pain, he hated headaches. Mike was frustrated at how easily she could push him around. He was still too weak to resist, she nodded and stood by the door. She was staying to keep an eye on him he presumed. He needed to get out of here, he couldn’t miss his job now. Mike tried to speak, to explain why he needed to go to work. But his mouth felt like it was full of wet clay. Nothing came out but incoherent slurring. The nurse giggled and turned to the many machines hooked up to Mike.  
“The drugs we gave you are numbing the nerves your head, it’s preventing the worst of your headache. Which brings me to what happened to you. You passed out from sleep deprivation combined with major stress. I assume your work during the night?” Mike nodded and tried to get up again. The nurse shook her head and gently pushed him back down again.  
“You might need to take a break from your job for a while. You need rest and relaxation now more than you need money.” Mike shook his head firmly and winced from the pain. The nurse checked the machines for a bit longer then started to walk out of the room.  
“You stay put, I’m serious. You’ll be in a lot of pain and misery if you try to leave in your condition. I’ll be back, I just need to grab the doctor and get you some food. You’re horribly malnourished.” The nurse walked out, Mike started to sit up. The nurse peeked back in for a second then left again. Fortunately, Mike hadn’t made any progress so she was satisfied. Mike waited a minute to make sure she really left, then he struggled to stand up again. He tried his absolute hardest to ignore the pain bursting in his head. He eventually got up a few minutes later, he searched the room for anything to help him move around. He grabbed the IV pole but it was too flimsy to hold his weight. He resolved to lean against the wall until he found a wheelchair or crutches or something. He followed the wall along his room until he got to the hallway. It was empty so he took off towards the closest supply room he could see. The was slightly ajar fortunately, so Mike braced himself and pulled the door open. Lights started to flash in front of his eyes and he started to fade away. He gripped his hands tight until his fingernails left crescent-shaped marks in his palms. The pain helped him focus and to bring him back from the edge of passing out. He opened his eyes and grinned, there was a row of wheelchairs against the wall. He limped across, still fighting his headache, and placed himself in the chair.   
“Always wanted to use one of these.” Mike said aloud, grinning. He wheeled himself into the hall and made his way to the elevator. 

He had gotten lost for a little bit but the signs mostly helped guide him. He had seen no sign of the nurse and nobody was trying to stop him or ask him what he was doing. As long as he acted like he was going somewhere, nobody bothered him. He reached the elevator and pressed the down button. He waited a second, then realized that the nurse could be coming up that very elevator. He scooted down the hall and went around the corner, in earshot of the elevators, but far enough away that he could make a quick escape if someone came up. A second later he heard a ding, he listened for footsteps but heard none. He slowly wheeled himself over to the elevators and saw that they were empty. He pumped a fist and entered the open elevator just before it closed. He pressed the button for the lobby and celebrated in his head. Then just before the doors shut, the other elevator doors opened and he heard the voice of the nurse talking to the doctor. He only had a few minutes now, he had to book it out of there before they discovered that he had left. Tapping the armrest impatiently he watched the elevator numbers tick down slowly. After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator dinged and doors finally opened. Mike peered out from the open doorway then decided that that seemed really suspicious. He quickly wheeled himself towards the door. But then voice called out from behind him.  
“Excuse me,” Nike froze knowing that he was caught. He was debating on whether or not to just run for it, or rather roll for it.   
“Are you going to check out before you leave?” The woman’s voice called, Mike let out a sigh of relief and turned back around. The woman was looking at him expectantly, Mike opened his mouth then realized he didn’t know what he was supposed to say.  
“Room number, and the name of your doctor please.” Her voice was bored and practically monotone. Mike tried desperately to remember his room number, then realized she would probably verify or call in to see if that patient was due to release.  
“Uhh I think it’s room 621.” Mike tried, he was pretty sure that he went down about 6 floors. The lady checked a binder she had on her desk, she glanced up at him then back down to the binder.   
“Sooo, you’re checking out from the maternity ward? Pardon me for assuming but you don’t look the type to be giving birth to a baby.” Mike blushed and stammered to try and remedy his mistake.   
“Uhh sorry that’s probably not the room, I think it might be 721?” She checked her binder again, flipping to the last page, then looked up again.   
“So they put in a new seventh floor without me noticing? That’s pretty impressive, don't you think?” Mike blushed again then something caught his eye. The elevator numbers had gone from floor 5 and seemed to be headed right towards the lobby. A gut feeling told Mike that the nurse and the doctor were in that elevator. He started to panic.  
“Listen I don’t really remember my room number, I’m sorry.” The woman smirked and took a deep dramatic breath.   
“If you tell me your last name I can look on the computer to find it.”   
“Wilson!” He practically shouted, the elevator had reached floor two and Wilson was the first thing to come to his mind, why was that the first thing to come to his mind? The woman typed a few letters into the computer. She paused a second then said,  
“Kay looks like we have someone in there due to be released anytime soon so I’ll assume it was yo-”  
“Okaythankyougoodbye!” Mike yelled over his shoulder as he wheeled for the door as fast as he could. Mike needed to get as far away as he could. His apartment was just around the corner if he could get there fast then he could hide out there until his shift started. He made it to the building then stopped in his tracks. He forgot, of course, there was a set of steps leading up to the front doors. Mike sighed and wheeled himself over to the stone railing leading up the stairs. He shakily stood up, his headache trying to pound his skull into oblivion. He leaned on the wheelchair’s handles and pushed the thing into the bushes nearby, it would have to suffice until later. He had to get up those stairs now. He lifted his leg, fighting the nausea that made him want to keel over and die, and placed it on the first step. He shuddered and moved his other leg to place it on the next step, then he heard a car pull up behind him.


	12. Chapter 12

Mike panicked knowing that the doctor and nurse were right behind him, then he heard a voice call out from behind him and he was filled with even worse dread. “Not him please not him.” Mike pleaded in his head.  
“Hey, kid! You alright?” It was Brody Wilson, he must’ve seen him struggling up the stairs and stopped to help him. “Asshole.” Mike thought.  
“Hey take it easy, you look like you’re about to fall over, you okay?” Brody put his arm around Mike to help lift him up. He tried to push Brody away but he was too weakened and couldn’t do more than gently hit his ribs. Brody practically carried him up the stairs and balanced him on the porch of his apartment building.   
“Kid what happened to you?” He asked, it seemed like he was really concerned about Mike’s health. No, he was just faking, there was someone in the passenger seat of his car, he was just putting on a show for whoever it was. He didn’t really care, nobody did. Mike almost fell over as another wave of nausea and lightheadedness hit him like a brick. Brody caught him just before he fell,  
“Okay I don’t care what you say, I’m gonna get you to your bed. I don’t know what’s going on but standing out here isn’t helping you.” Mike tried to struggle then gave up, there wasn’t anything he could do. Brody guided Mike inside and took him to the elevator. Mike told him his room number and floor, Brody pressed the third floor button. The elevator was already on their floor so it opened with a distorted ding. The landlord hadn’t bothered to fix the speaker, he wouldn’t let Mike fix it because he was suspicious of Mike trying to get paid for doing it. Not that he wouldn’t, the landlord wanted him out of the building for some reason. The elevator reached the third floor and opened up. Brody guided Mike to his room, Mike handed him the key from his pocket.  
“Alrighty here we are,” Brody said cheerfully, ”If you need anything then just call okay? All I have left to do tonight is to drive my daughter home from the hospital and pick up some supplies for Saturday.” He winked and handed Mike a slip of paper with his number on it. Mike laid himself down on the bed, and waved Brody away.   
“I will.” Mike said, lying completely and thoroughly. What a jerk, he thought. Brody waved and left, locking the door behind him. Mike waited for a minute then looked out his window that overlooked the front of the apartments. A second later, Brody walked out the doors and got into his car. Mike slowly pulled himself out of bed and walked to the closet where he kept his supplies for the night as well as some random scraps he had picked up. His bag was presumably still at Esmerelda’s auto shop, so no improvisation tonight. Just a single floodlight and the extra ten percent power. He unlocked the door, and left locking it again. He struggled all the way down the hall and down the elevator. His headache and nausea was starting to fade a little bit, but not much. Mike made it back outside and pulled his wheelchair out of the bushes. He sat down in it, sighing in relief. The road to the pizzeria was a long and rocky one, but a journey he had to make. Mike giggled at how serious he sounded, then realized he was probably starting to lose it and started wheeling away.

Chase Allen waited nervously by the doors, there was a message that he needed to pass on to Mikeal. Yesterday he had checked the facility for any problems that might have occurred, but really checking to see if the night guards guts were strewn about the back room. According to management's orders, not exactly word for word though. He was surprised to see Mike approaching in a wheelchair with what seemed to be an industrial floodlight trailing along behind him by a black cable. Mike nodded in a greeting gesture and pointed to the door.  
“Do you mind getting the door for me?” He asked politely. Chase just nodded and opened the door for him. Mike wheeled himself in and waved backwards to Chase.  
“Uh-wait I need to-!” He stopped as he saw Bonnie's head turn to stare at the nightguard. He paled and turned to run for his car. Mike was in trouble tonight.

Mike cherished the surprised look on the robots face. He had no idea how expressive their faces could be. He openly showed that he saw his reaction and then laughed aloud when the chicken saw him too and practically gasped. But the look on her face quickly turned from surprise...to concern. Mike’s laugh died in his throat, and he turned his chair to go down the hall. Why would she look concerned?

Three hours later, Mike really regretted coming into work that night. The difficulty seemed ramped up this night. They would stay at his door for longer, especially the chicken one. It would stand by the window staring at him. Before it would do that but for some reason it didn’t seem like a blank stare like before. It seemed to watch him carefully, it saw how he struggled moving quickly to open and close doors. The flood light was out of commission after a close incident where he had to close the door, accidentally severing the cord to the light. The accident left him practically defenseless, and that wasn’t good when he already was physically crippled. He was not confident in his survivability chance. He checked the clock, it was only 3. He needed to remember to bring the clock home with him to fix it.  
A couple hours later, Mike was sick to his stomach, his head was bursting with pain and his eyes were sore. He frantically flipped through the security cameras as fast as his eyes could send the visual signals to his brain. They were all around him, one creeping down the hall, another right outside his left door. He flashed the light once on his right as fast as he could, minimizing his power usage. The freakish chicken stood there, it’s beak wide open and eyes staring at him. Mike had never liked the chicken anyways, he never liked any of them. They were always staring accusingly at him like he’d done something wrong. A small feeling stirred inside him, underneath the fear and panic that he was feeling. Mike pushed it away and went back to his job, keeping himself alive for as long as he could. They were right there, two feet away, only separated by a metal door and 8% of battery left in the building. Mike shut his eyes and focused his mind, centering it and calming himself down. All that went out the window when he heard quick footsteps approaching his left door. His eyes shot open and he lunged out of the wheelchair for the door button. Instead of the door closing, the light flickered on, just as he saw a red blur flash by the window and skid through the door.

Fortunately Mike had prepared for the fox. He had seen how it had charged down the hall and he had bet that it wouldn’t see where it was running. Mike had strung a steel wire he had gotten from some leftover scrap in his closet over the bottom of the doorway. Incidentally, the fox hadn’t looked to see if its path was clear. As soon as the already badly damaged robot hit the wire, Mike heard a twang and a snap signifying the wire breaking under the stress as well as something else breaking. The fox hit the floor hard with a loud crashing of metal. It slid and hit the other side of the office and didn’t move. It seemed the shell of the robot had completely shattered around the top of the head and the right shin had completely snapped in half. Mike stared in shock, he hadn’t expected it to be that effective. He heard a metallic squeak from behind him and once again, it seemed for the fifth time, he turned and saw the bunny standing in the hallway outside the door in shock. Mike, successfully this time, quickly shut the west doorway in its face. He turned to examine the robot again and was alarmed to see it starting to rise. It stood several feet higher than Mike and didn’t look happy about having to balance on one leg. It felt at the top of its head, not necessarily feeling with nerves, but sensing where it’s head should be, and where it wasn’t. It’s hand went through the gap where it’s outer skull had shattered and gasped.  
“That night guard, I’ll make him pay for that.” Mike stiffened at hearing not only it speaking the first word he had heard from any of them, but also at the content of the words. The fox’s memory must have caught up with it only then because it suddenly turned and saw the guard. It’s eyes narrowed and glared at the guard. Mike was in serious trouble.

Foxy was furious, his body was already severely damaged from last night. And now his skull was broken open, and from the rattling sound in his head, it seemed something in his skull had gotten loose. “How many, Foxy’s got a screw loose jokes am I going to hear from the others?” He wondered irritably. He raised his hook and pointed it at the night guard, “What were you thinking putting debris in the middle of a walkway? What if someone else had run through that doorway? Do you feel like paying for a real human’s medical bills?” He ranted in an angry voice.  
“Not likely considering you beasts would murder anyone in here after twelve huh?” The guard replied, he seemed to be acting angry and defensive to stall for time, any second now he and the others would go out of control and start to stuff the night guard in a Freddy suit. He waited, knowing there was no point in trying otherwise. He continued to wait, while the guard started to look confused. Why hadn’t the buzzing come?

“Why was it just standing there?” Mike wondered, he watched as the fox went from angry, to ticked off, to mildly perturbed, to confused in a few seconds. The fox looked down at its hands and then back up at the night guard. It cocked its head in confusion and something fell out of its skull. Mike watched a small computer chip, crudely made, fall from the fox’s head and land on the tile floor. It looked down at the chip and then tried to pick it up. Mike beat him to it and examined it. The chip seemed homemade and cheap, no identifying marks or company logos were on it. It looked like someone had read a book on computer programming and decided to try it out for the first time. It seemed that it was connected to their motherboards by some amateur and it had somehow managed to stay on. Mike held the chip up to the fox,  
“Is this yours?” He asked, the fox would’ve attacked him already if he was planning on it so he assumed they were at some kind of impromptu peace meeting. The fox looked at it focusing its visual cameras with an audible whir.  
“I assume so seeing that it came from my head.” It said that last part accusingly with a glare at Mike. Mike was lost in his mind however, he was trying to figure out why someone had attached a foreign computer chip to an animatronic.  
“Are there any functions or anything at all that you could do before but not anymore?” Mike asked, he was trying to figure out exactly what the chip was for.  
“I don’t know, I’m not sure.” The fox said shakily, it almost seemed scared or something.  
“Well, then I don’t know what it’s for. Could be a memory chip, could be useless, could be someone’s idea of a practical joke.”  
“The buzzing is gone.” The fox said staring at the floor. Mike looked up at it,  
“The...buzzing?” He asked, confused.   
“The buzzing.” The fox said, still staring at the floor. It slowly started to grimace, and choke. Mike sat up alarmed,  
“A-are you okay? What’s wrong?” the fox continued to make that strange face and...and Mike realized that it was smiling and laughing. What Mike mistook for a grimace and choking was a smile and laughter. He was stunned, he had no idea what had gotten into the fox.  
“Why are you so happy? What was the buzzing?” The fox’s laughter died down slowly, but it retained the grin on its face. It looked like it had just been relieved of some burden.  
“The buzzing was why we killed all those people, the buzzing was why we were trying to kill you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kay I might have to slow down chapter posting. I’m posting them faster than I can write them. So forewarning that I’ll be posting less often.


	13. Chapter 13

The fox sat down with a clang of metal and examined its new stump. It didn’t look like it was hurting, the fox just seemed annoyed that it’s foot was gone. It must not feel pain, Mike thought, of course it doesn’t feel pain, it doesn’t need to. It doesn’t comprehend it at all, it has no idea what pain is because it has no nerves. Mike watched in fascination as the fox stood up again, balancing on one foot. It hopped over to the remains of its foot in the corner, it picked it up and examined it.  
“Completely destroyed thanks to you.” It growled at Mike, he wheeled himself back just in case it decided to kill him again. Its chip that forced it to attack him was gone, but it still looked like it wanted to introduce him to the inside of a Freddy Fazbear suit.  
I can fix it, I’m a mechanic. I have a soldering iron in my duffel bag.” Which was then that Mike realized his duffel bag was still probably at the auto shop. If he went there, Esmerelda might call the hospital again to bring him back. He didn’t think they would let him escape again this time. He would have to try to sneak in, and since he was still bound to a wheelchair, he didn’t think that stealth would be his strong suit. The fox had set down his foot gingerly and glanced at Mike who was lost in thought.  
“You can fix it? When can you? How fast?” Mike glanced at him and then pointed to the foot. The fox stared at him confused for a second before realizing what he wanted. It picked up the foot and handed it to him. Mike examined the foot, paying close attention to the snapped part.  
“It might just be easier to give you a peg leg for now.” Mike commented, the fox laughed dryly. Then saw that Mike wasn’t smiling,  
“Wait, you’re serious?” The fox asked. It didn’t look comfortable with the idea.  
“Why not? You are a pirate are you not? Which reminds me, where’s your accent?”  
The fox glared at him, “It’s only on the recorded sentences. Why would I do a pirate accent all the time?” Mike shrugged and set the foot in his lap, he wheeled himself out of the office and waved backwards to the fox. He didn’t bother to look to see if it waved back, who cared? He was severely overdue for a good nap. He waved the foot in the direction of the animatronics on stage and snickered at their gape-faced-eyes-wide reaction. He heard a clanging and watched the fox hop its way to its own stage. The other animatronics eyes widened even further and Mike lost it, it was too much for him. The fox glared at him and disappeared behind its curtains. Mike gathered himself and made his way out the door, still chuckling. The animatronics all looked at each other, minus Freddy who still hadn’t activated. He was still waiting, he only came off the stage if the power went out, or if the guard lived to Night 4. He rarely came of the stage for anything but the power running out.

Mike wheeled himself to the apartments, it was unfortunate that after the adrenaline ran out, he was too tired to notice the ambulance parked across the street. He didn’t notice the people standing just inside the doors waiting for him. As far as the paramedics were concerned, this man was in a medical emergency. He had left before treatment and could die if he didn’t get back to the hospital. They were just doing their job as they gently lifted the practically comatose man out of the stolen wheelchair and into the stretcher. They were just doing their job as they took him to the ambulance and drove him to the hospital. They were just doing their job as they took him to the special hospital room.

Mike awoke with his arms and legs tied down onto the bed. An IV dripped an amber liquid into a tube connected to his arm. He tried to wiggle around a little bit but found that the medical personnel were not taking any chances with him escaping. He could see a man standing outside the door keeping watch. Mike groaned as he thought of the possibility of missing a night, he needed to tell the doctor that he needed to go to work. As if on command a man in a blue coat and white shirt walked in holding a clipboard.  
“Hey! I need to be at work before 12 AM! I could get fired if I don’t and I really need the money right now!” It hurt Mike to strain his throat and to admit that he was financially struggling. But this was dire, we wasn’t stupid enough to not admit that he was poor. But he was stubborn enough to not accept help.  
“Where do you work Mr. Schmidt?” The doctor asked cooly, he was still examining his clipboard and checking the medical instruments.  
“Freddy Fazbears, I work the night job as head of security.” It hurt Mike even more to admit that his only choice was Fazbears but he was desperate.  
“The doctor raised a radio to his mouth and said,  
“Janice? Could you call Fazbears and inform them that their head of security is taking a mandatory medical leave for about three days? Yes it’s Mikeal Schmidt, m-i-k-e-a-l s-c-h-m-i-d-t. Yes. Okay thank you.” The doctor lowered the radio and tsked.  
“Mikeal Schmidt, shows signs of moderate malnourishment, moderate stress, lack of sleep, bruises and scratches covering both arms due to previous mental diagnosis…guilty state...subconscious self harm” The doctor trailed off reading under his breath. Mike hated when people knew about his “mental state”, he was just stressed most of the time. The doctor took a deep breath and then held out his hand to shake. Mike shook his arms and glared at the doctor, the doctor smiled and shook his head.  
“Don’t glare at me, you brought it upon yourself when you left the hospital prematurely in an unstable condition.” Mike muttered under his breath, the doctor consulted his notes again and sighed.  
“Mike you’re too hard on yourself-”  
“Don’t tell me I’m too hard on myself! I hear it too many times, I’m just fine.” Mike snapped.  
“You need a few days of rest and relaxation so to speak. You’re overworked for how much sleep you get and for how much you eat. I’d recommend that you bring food to eat during work and try to sleep more during the day. We’re going to keep you here for a while, you don’t necessarily need drugs or special treatment. You just need to stop for a little while and recuperate.”  
“So you’ll feed me and give me a bed here for a few days and then you’ll release me?”  
“For real this time.” The doctor winked and Mike suddenly felt how tired he was. He had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep for the past three days and he felt it. He laid his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes.  
“After we release you we’ll recommend you this supplement diet that should keep you going for a while.” But Mike didn’t hear him, he was a thousand miles away in dreamland.

Mike trekked through a swamp of syrupy liquid that didn’t seem like water or mud. Twisted trees rose from the water, the only landmarks around. There was a thick fog that prevented him from seeing very far. He kept walking forwards, not knowing why, just that he needed to. He didn’t know what he was running from or running to, but he was on his way. He heard a screeching from up ahead. Mike quickened his pace and soon saw a twisted hunk of metal, twisting and curling around itself in an endless cycle. It screeched again, an inhuman and horrible screech. Mike took a step back, he didn’t know what to make of the metal thing. It slowly started to drift towards him. Mike turned away from it and tried to run away. The sticky fluid pulled at him, seeming like it was dragging him backwards. Mike was hardly moving, and the metal was drawing closer. It screeched again and whirled faster and faster. Mike tried shutting his eyes and willing himself to wake up. Instead, the metal chunk reached his leg, tearing it apart and shredding it. Mike screamed in pain, it was moving up farther and farther. It reached his torso and started to envelope his body. It’s sharp edges and swirling points dig into and tore his skin. Mike stopped moving, but stayed conscious. He felt the metal cover his chest and arms, then finally digging its points into the soft flesh of his face and eyes. Mike was nothing...no...he was something. Mike moved his leg, he still felt the pain shooting through him, continuing to rip apart the pieces of Mike left behind. He moved his arm and pushed himself up. He stood several feet taller, the surface of the liquid stilled. Mike bent over and looked into it, a metal face looked back. A ragged and torn bunny head, slightly yellow-green. It had a grotesque grin on its face and its eyes mimicked the movement of Mikes own eyes. Mike opened his mouth to scream. But before he did, the reflection jumped out of the water and screamed into his face.


	14. Chapter 14

Mike jerked awake, struggling against his bonds before he remembered where he was. He laid his head back and sighed. He was back in the hospital, the heart rate machine beeped slower and slower as he calmed down. What was that bunny thing? Was there more of them? Mike looked over at the clock and saw that it was 3:28. A knock at the door came, Mike called for them to come in and the doctor peeked his head in.  
“Hey there Mike, I thought you’d be up by now. You have a visitor.” Mike was confused, he didn’t know anybody who would come…oh no. Mike dreaded the possibility that it might be Brody or Mr. Allen. Coming to either cheerfully try to invite Mike to some stupid party, or to fire him for damaging the animatronics. He tucked the fox’s foot further beneath the blanket. However, it was Esmerelda who came in, carrying his duffel bag. Mike sighed in relief and tried to hold out his hands for the bag. He blushed as he remembered the ties on his hands.  
“You mind asking them to take these off?” Mike asked, gesturing to the ties with his head. Esmereldas eyes narrowed as she saw the ties on his limbs. She set the bag down and walked out the door. He heard rapid fire chattering and arguing from down the hall. She walked in a minute later trailed by his doctor and a nurse with a key. She unlocked the ties and Mike sat up rubbing his wrists.  
“Are you okay?” Esmerelda asked, she genuinely seemed to want to know if he was okay...for some reason. Mike didn’t understand people sometimes, they seemed as diverse and as strange as snowflakes. He picked up his bag and set it by him on the bed.  
“I need to go to work tonight.” Mike said staring down the doctor from his seat on the edge of the bed. The doctor shook his head and started to surely tell Mike some dumb medical reason to stay in the hospital.  
“I won’t have it from you, I need to be paid. This isn’t some joke or something. I need to be there. Just ask my boss how much he needs me there.” The doctor shook his head again and opened his mouth to reply.  
“Call. Him. And. Ask.” Mike deadpanned. The doctor stared at him, Mike stared back. Esmerelda watched the exchange like a one sided tennis game. The doctor suddenly laughed aloud,  
“You haven’t changed a bit Mikeal, just as stubborn as always.” Mike was shocked. The doctor knew him? He looked at his name tag, Dr. Elseridge.   
“Jaiden Elseridge?” Mike asked, the doctor smiled.   
“Junior year, Intro to Mechanics, period 4. You always called out the teachers mistakes and how he could make the project better and more efficient. You once remade the teachers exact car in the 3D modeling program, down to the dent on the back bumper.”  
“It was the front bumper.” Mike said absently. He was shocked that the doctor not only remembered him, but didn’t hate him.  
“It means nothing, everyone hates you. He’s just hiding it better.” Mike thought, he went light headed again and started to sway. He stopped thinking about it and blanked out his mind. He cleared up and a faint ringing that he didn’t notice before went away. He needed to stop that, it was causing him to seem strange and that brought attention to him. He didn’t want anyone to care for him, it only set himself up for another disappointment. The doctor was saying something, Mikes attention snapped back to the present and he started to listen.  
“-suppose that I could allow you to work for a night. But not if you are too stressed, if you start to stress yourself out or anything of the sort then you could black out again. I’m sure you remembered what happened at the auto shop?” Mike nodded, he needed to play along. If he didn’t work then he couldn’t get paid. If he couldn’t keep up his payments, he would fail, and that was unacceptable. Dr. Elseridge was looking at him, studying him. He turned to the nurse and spoke to her,  
“Annabeth, go inform Fazbears that their night guard will be able to make his shift tonight, with an accomplice to ensure his medical safety.” Mike nodded again, then Dr. Elseridges words hit him.  
“Wait what? No I can’t have someone with me! No way.” Mike couldn’t allow someone to find out what was going on there. They would report to the police and he would lose his job, or they could get hurt. Mike wasn’t going to allow that doctor to send someone with him. The doctor turned to Esmerelda who was still standing by the bed.  
“Would you be able to accompany Mr. Schmidt to his workplace, just for tonight?” Dr. Elseridge asked her. She blinked and was silent for a few seconds,   
“What time does your work start?” she asked.   
“It starts at 12 AM. But I don’t think you should-”  
“I can manage that.” Esmerelda interjected, she seemed determined to come along. Mike was a little less apprehensive with the idea of Esmerelda coming along but he was still not okay with it. Mike opened his mouth to argue but Esmerelda shushed him sharply. He was startled at her interruption.  
“I will come to your shift tonight, your manager will be there as well?” She said curtly. The doctor nodded,  
“We’ll arrange an employee to stay with you tonight.” Dr. Elseridge said, he consulted his notes again before tapping his pen on the clipboard.  
“But for now, Mr. Schmidt, it’s time to eat.”

Mike felt like he hadn’t eaten this much ever in his life. He had a hospital cafeteria tray with: a ceramic bowl of grapes, watermelon, and strawberries, a small plate of broccoli, a cheeseburger with everything on it, a plastic wrapped cookie, and a bottle of water. Everything was delicious and filling. All those rumors of hospital food being terrible are so horribly wrong, Mike thought. He scarfed down everything on the tray, except the plates and plasticware of course. Mike thought for a second that he should save some or slow down, but he soon came to his senses and finished his meal. He laid back and sighed, he was even almost starting to regret leaving the hospital last night. Mike checked the clock mounted on the wall, the ticking hands showed it was 5:12. Mike was feeling tired again and decided that he could spare time for a quick nap. There wasn’t an alarm he could set or anything, so he hoped that they would wake him in time for his shift. He closed his eyes, and drifted into sleep. Just before he did, he remembered he didn’t have his restraints or his sleep pills. He tried to rouse himself, but it was too late. Everything went black.


	15. Chapter 15

Mike was feeling as well rested as ever, he was confident and still slightly nauseous but alright. He was in the office with Esmerelda and Mr. Allen. They were staring in horror at the cameras as the animatronics moved around and made noise. Freddy had finally moved off the stage and moved around. He could see his glowing eyes in the corner of the camera in the dining room. He didn’t move often, but his pattern was unpredictable. Didn’t seem to be trying to directly get into the office, just to move around. Mike had repaired the section of wire that had been cut last night by the door. The bunny hadn’t tried to go down that hall, and Mike was tempted to move it to the opposite hall just in case. He wanted to wait until he knew which hall Freddy would come down. He was a new player and didn’t seem predictable. Mike stood and quickly rolled the floodlight inside. He turned around and saw Chica right near the window. Mike hurriedly slammed his hand on the door button and shut her out. She was staring through the window blankly, she seemed different from before. Mike shook it off and sat back down in his seat. He checked the cameras and couldn’t find the bunny. He tapped the light and saw nothing. He scrunched his brow in confusion, then heard a man screaming. He whirled around and saw down the hall, the bunny dragging Mr. Allen away. He was screaming and beating his hands against the robots arms, but to no avail. He heard another scream and saw the chicken dragging Esmerelda away. Mike was in shock, the door wasn’t open before, why was it now? He ran into the office and saw the door button blinking on and off. Mike charged down the hall after Esmerelda, but there wasn’t anyone there. The pizzeria was dark, darker than usual. He heard a deep laughter from behind him. Mike turned but saw nothing. He heard it again to his left and he turned again. It echoed all around him, Mike covered his eyes and whispered to himself over and over.  
“Make it stop, make it stop, stop, stop it.” Mikes one voice sounded fake, robotic. A crushing hand came down on his shoulder. It lifted him up and turned him around. It was Freddy, it’s big, brown face with black, deep eyes filled his vision. That haunting laugh echoed from its face again. It’s other hand came up and grabbed the edge of its face, lifting it off. It revealed the terrifying metal endoskeleton beneath. A small chip, similar to the one from the fox, was embedded above the skulls left eye. The only thing Mike thought at that moment before Freddy crushed Mikes skull was that the chip seemed very out of place.

Mike awoke in the hospital bed covered in sweat. He was aching again, especially on his shoulder where it seemed like he had gripped his own shoulder so hard he caused bruises. He winced as he sat up and rubbed his shoulder. It was 11:36, he needed to get to work. He had no idea where anyone was so he pressed the call button. A few minutes later a nurse walked through the door.  
“I need to get up and go to work in a few minutes. Am I clear to go?” Mike didn’t know why he was asking, probably so they didn’t chase him down again. The nurse nodded and walked out again. Another few minutes passed and Dr. Elseridge walked in. Him and Mike went over a few things that Mike needed to avoid and make sure to do. Then after a call to Esmerelda and Mr. Allen, Mike left to Freddy Fazbears Pizzeria.

They were already waiting for him when Mike got there toting his duffel bag and rolling the floodlight next to him.They were standing outside by the doors, talking quietly. They both looked over at Mike when he arrived both of them looking confusedly at the light and bag. Mr. Allen jumped to get the door open after a second. They stood awkwardly as Mr. Allen took a couple tries to get the door open, due to his hands shaking like a leaf in the wind. He finally unlocked the door with a beep and a click and then pulled it open. Mr. Allen and Mike both briskly walked towards the office as Esmerelda trailed behind, looking around at the place. Mike reached the office and set his stuff down. He looked around and realized something.  
“Where’s Esmerelda?” He asked Mr. Allen. He seemed to be in some sort of traumatic shock however. He was leaned against the wall and muttering to himself. Mike peered out the east door and then walked down the hall. He swore as he saw what she was doing and ran down the hall. She was standing right in front of Freddy himself, examining the joints and mechanics.  
“HEY!!” Mike yelled. “GET AWAY FROM IT!” Esmerelda jumped and turned around with a confused look on her face.  
“What? What’s wrong?” Mike watched as Freddys eyes slowly moved to look down at Esmereldas head. Mike paled and he reached out his hand.  
“Walk towards me slowly, don’t turn around, don’t make any sudden movements.” Mike said shakily. Freddy hadn’t moved since he looked down at her. Mike could bear someone being hurt because of him. Esmerelda walked towards mike, step by step until she reached him. Mike walked backwards slowly with her, not taking his eyes off of the bear. It’s eyes followed their retreating figures until they reached the office. As soon as they went through the door, Esmerelda peeked out and look down the hall.  
“There’s nothing there, what were you talking about?” Mike went to see where she was looking, the bear had gone back to its normal stance, staring straight ahead. Mike groaned and checked the clock, 11:58.  
“Any second now.” Mike muttered, he turned to Esmerelda and looked straight into her eyes.  
“Listen to me. The next few hours may very well be the most terrifying hours of your life. You will be in mortal danger, I am not joking. You might die tonight. Unless, you listen to me and are very careful.” Mike checked the clock again, 11:59. Esmerelda looked incredibly confused, but not scared. Unlike Mr. Allen who was still frozen against the wall.  
“I have a plan, I’ve been doing this for a few days and I have a strategy. We need to-“ the bell signaling the shift went off. Esmerelda jumped and looked around, Mr. Allen looked up and whimpered, Mike scowled and looked down the hallway. They were already all gone, Night 4 had begun.

Chase had finally realized and come to terms with his situation. His chances of surviving weren’t going to go up if he froze and tried to hide. He only had one chance at this. He had to find out what happened to his brother. The phone began to ring on the desk. Nobody was looking like they were planning on answering it, so he pulled the phone off the hook.  
“Hello, hello? Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it. Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow.” There was a banging noise. By now the others had noticed and turned to listen. They all had paled as they realized what was happening.  
“It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you uh, when I did. Uh, hey, do me a favor. Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room? I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there.” Freddy's music box began to play in the background.  
“You know...oh, no” there was a deep moaning sound, then a screeching...then silence. They all stared, horrified at the message left behind on the phone. Chase felt limp, like all the energy left in him was suddenly drained out by the message. A hot knife was being jabbed through his heart.  
“It’s not possible, Scott couldn’t be dead.” But the evidence was right there. The evidence was...covered up. Freddy’s management had covered up his death. His bosses, had covered up their employees, his brothers...death. Chase clenched his hands and looked up. Rage filled him, absolute and unadulterated fury at his bosses. They were going down.

Mike was in shock at the phone call, but the look on the normally terrified or nervous man almost made him take a step back. He looked like he wanted to throw down with Freddy himself. Mike had no idea the guy had it in him. Esmerelda looked as if she might throw up.  
“What was that horrible noise?” She asked through her hands covering her mouth. Mike gravely pointed down the hall, she paled.  
“You mean those robots...killed someone?” Her voice quavered slightly at the end. Mike sighed and nodded.  
“Those things killed the phone guy, his brother.” Mike gestured to Mr. Allen. “And they’ll kill us too if we can’t keep them out of this office.” Esmerelda stuck her face in her hands for a few seconds. Mike wondered if it would be inappropriate to pay her back. But before he did, she raised her head, a stoic look to her face.  
“These two are stronger then I thought.” Mike thought, “I need to get out of this habit of judging people without knowing them.” Mike raised his pedal for the floodlight, “Here’s the plan.”

Freddy was tired, this was just another person's blood on his hands. He hated having to do this, but he had no choice. He had surrendered himself to the buzzing in his head and hadn’t been in control of his body since. He could only see what his body was seeing. The others were still in some control of themselves he figured. Since they would sometimes hold back, but he had never hesitated or held back. The only reason the woman was still alive was because the buzzing wouldn’t move or activate until after 12:00. It had always been that way. It held to some sort of insane rules to make the game “fair”. It had whispered to him sometimes, or maybe Freddy overheard it talking to itself. Either way, he always had felt the buzzing stronger than the others. He watched Bonnie walk down his hallway towards the office. Freddy was uncertain as to why they only went down certain halls, but it didn’t really matter did it? All that mattered to them...what did matter to them?

Bonnie wasted no time walking down the hallway, hoping to catch the guard...off guard. He had noticed he had brought two other people. One of them being one of the older employees who had worked here for longer. Bonnie winced as he saw then roll out the dreaded floodlight again. He tried to turn around, but the buzzing took no heed of it, he continued to be forced to walk forwards. He saw the short man roll it against the wall. He turned and the next thing that happened completely surprised Bonnie. The man had sneered at the robot, making even the buzzing hesitate. The man ducked down and covered his head. The buzzing began to reach down towards the man. But before it could, a blinding flash came from the lights, as well as a sudden impact against his chest. His systems reported a power surge and shut down. As they did Bonnie thought one thing, ”That was new.”

Mike was thrilled at how effective his new toys were. He had attached a remote activated taser that Esmerelda had brought and Mike added remote activation. The double whammy of the lights and electricity had caused a complete system shutdown. He donned some electrician gloves and tried to drag Bonnie into the office.  
“I need some help!” Mike whisper-shouted. Mr. Allen our one some of his own gloves that Mike had loaned to him and tried to help drag it.  
“Oh for the love of the Dios Bueno!” She practically shouted and gestured for Mr. Allen to take off his gloves. He handed them to her, she put them on, and dragged the comatose robot into the office. Mike tapped the robots metal leg quickly. Nothing happened, the electricity had dissipated. Mike quickly moved over to the head and crouched beside it. He located the release switches for the exoskeleton head and flipped them both open.  
“Try to lift the head off the ground.” He instructed the other two. They gripped Bonnie's chest and lifted, both straining. Mike quickly pulled the head off and exposed the skull. Just like in the dream, there was a small computer chip implanted over where the eyebrow should be. Mike examined the chip and it’s connections to the skull. He snipped a few wires and gently pulled it free. He set it down on the floor and gestured for them to lift it back up. Mike placed the head back on the body and sat back, wiping sweat from his brow. The robot wouldn’t wake for a few hours to make sure it wouldn’t be damaged once it woke. Mike and the others pushed the robot against the wall. “Two down,” Mike said, “Two to go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who’s pissed off that I’m not putting actual chapter names?


	16. Chapter 16

Chica was starting to get worried. Bonnie hadn’t returned from the hall after the loud clang they heard from his hallway. He wasn’t visible down the hall so he had to either be in the office or the storage closet. She was hesitant to go down her own hallway to see if Bonnie was there due to the floodlight. It was currently stationed in the other hall, but it could be moved around quickly. She wasn’t going to take the full brunt of the flash if it would lead to her disappearing as well. She decided to try something. She’d walk down the hall with her visual shut off. It would prevent her from seeing where she was going, but if she could get down the hall, well it wouldn’t be worth it. But she would accomplish the task that she was being forced to do. She positioned herself by the hall, braced herself, and shut down her eyes. Everything was black, there was absolutely nothing visible. She slowly walked down the hall keeping a hand on the wall. She didn’t feel with nerves per se, she could feel when her servos were being strained and could use it to “feel” around. She kept another hand out to feel for the end of the corridor. She heard the rolling of wheels and felt terror even though she couldn’t be affected by it. She heard a voice call out for someone to wait. It was the night guard and it sounded like two other people. She clumsily felt for the doorframe and tried to enter. She eventually did and realized that there was no way to catch them without reactivating her eyes. She quickly reactivated them, they adjusted and focused on the sight in front of her. Her eyes opened wide and she tried to move out of the way. But it was too late, she felt an impact on her chest and her systems practically exploded with overload warnings and errors. She collapsed and shut down.

Mike watched as the chicken who had clearly thought to disable its eyes before approaching stumbled into the office and felt around. Mike raised an eyebrow at his partners who were looking like they were trying not to scream at the proximity of the robot. Mike picked up the floodlight to prevent it from making a sound from rolling, and set it down in front of the chicken. It had stopped moving, clearly to reactivate it’s eyes. It’s cameras whirred and focused, then it looked at the lights. Mike grinned and stepped on the pedal. The chicken tried to get out of the way but was hit by the taser right above where a heart should be on a human. It’s eyes were blinded and it hit the ground with a loud crash. Mike waved the others over and started work on the chicken. He glanced up and saw the clock read 4AM. They performed the same procedure as before, practically flawlessly. They dragged the limp robotic body over near the bunny and went back to luring the animatronics into ambush.  
An hour later and Freddy hadn’t shown himself, he had gotten off of the stage but hadn’t appeared anywhere else. He heard no noise from the kitchen or from anywhere for that matter. The fox hadn’t shown himself at all. The curtains remained tightly closed throughout the night. Mike would’ve appreciated the help, but acknowledged the fact that losing your foot kind of limited your usefulness. Mr. Allen was staring at the chicken,   
“I never liked Chica.” He murmured.   
“She always had the biggest eyes.”  
“Who’s Chica?” Mike asked, he was trying to focus on finding the best before he could surprise them. Both Esmerelda and Mr. Allen looked up at him.  
“What do you mean who’s Chica? She’s Chica.” Mr. Allen pointed to the chicken.  
“They have names?” Mike asked, he legitimately had no idea what their names were. The only name he knew was Freddy.  
“Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy.” Esmerelda said, “That's their names, you work here and you don’t even know their names?” She sounded almost offended. Mike shrugged,  
“I’ve only been here once before.” He said, “And I’ve never had a big thing for the place.” He really didn’t. The last time he had been here...just forget. He thought, it was easier to forget. He began to feel woozy and nauseous. He hadn’t realized it, but he was feeling fine just before he started thinking about that day. He needed to stop thinking about it, it was damaging already damaged goods. Mike closed the cameras to preserve power and chose to instead watch the two hallways. He was absolutely flummoxed as to where that bear could be. All of a sudden, the chimes signaling the end of the night sounded. Esmerelda and Mr. Allen both jumped at the sound, but then started to cheer. Mike just sat back and rubbed his eyes.   
Why had the bear disappeared? The cheering cut off suddenly as the two animatronics twitched and stood up. Mike didn’t flinch a bit, just waved as they both walked out and went back on the stage. Mike jogged out into the dining room to see if Freddy would default to the stage as well. And if he did, where he was hiding. He was shocked as he saw the curtains to Pirates Cove open and Freddy walked through. He ignored all of them and walked to the stage. Mike stared up at him and scrunched his brow in confusion.  
“You...break...rules. So...do...I.” voice hissed from Freddys voice box. Mike jumped back and prepared to run. But Freddy just seemed to want to say that before shutting down. Mike walked  
up close, closer than he probably ever should and whispered in his ear.  
“I don’t know if you can hear me, but it’s best that you know that I will stop at nothing to prevent a sentient being from suffering. You are forcing them to murder and kill. You are the one who is commuting the killings. Not them.” Mike turned around and saw Esmerelda and Mr. Allen standing behind him. They stared at him in...was that respect?  
“No it’s not.” A voice said in his head, Mike went white-faced and nearly collapsed. Esmerelda caught him and held him up. The three not-yet-friends, but three people who were significantly closer than before, walked out of the building.


	17. Chapter 17

Freddy watched the trio walk out of the building. The buzzing had broken one of its own rules. That was bad, if it started to break other rules then the guard and his friends were in trouble. He had no other choice then to stand by in his own mind and watch as he tore them apart during the next night. He dreaded having to have to kill the guard on the fifth night. But what choice did he have? Freddy tried to take over his body again, mentally pressing himself against the barrier that held him from control. But the buzzing pushed back harder, it filled Freddy's vision and hearing. He ricocheted back and fell farther from control. His vision darkened and he felt his mind go numb. If he tried again, he might get pushed so far back that he couldn’t return. But for now, he had to focus on getting back to where he was before.

As soon as Mike entered the hospital, after saying goodbye to Esmerelda and Mr. Allen who had only grunted in response. He was escorted to his room again, given a meal to eat, and left alone to get some of his energy back. Mike finished the meal, watermelon with a turkey and cheese sandwich, and laid his head back. But his thoughts were whirling, his plan depended on one thing that had usually let him down in the past. The cooperation of others, not Esmerelda and Mr. Allen, thought he was surprised at how they had adapted to the situation.  
“Probably traumatized them actually...whoops.” Mike thought to himself. But his plan didn’t revolve around their cooperation. He needed the animatronics help. His plan depended on the fact that they might want to compensate for trying to kill him by helping him take down Freddy. He seemed to be a wild card and didn’t work with the others. He had never spoken other than that sick laugh of his, and hadn’t shown a single sign of sentience. “He might be too far gone,” Mike thought, “He could be so dependant on that chip that, if removed, could kill-deactivate him.” He didn’t like that he almost used the word “kill” there. He shook his head and strapped himself into the bed. He laid back and closed his eyes, he needed the energy for tonight.

Esmerelda worked furiously in her shop. She needed to finish this project by midnight tonight and it was a hefty job. She had been using various parts around the shop and had to sacrifice a belonging or two that she had been saving for a bigger project. But what bigger project could there be other than one that could save her life and the lives of others? She welded the big bulb to the project and connected a few wires. She clicked the button to turn it on and smiled, one down and two to go.   
“Santi! You finished in there yet?” She called across the workshop.  
“Yea almost auntie! I just need help connecting all these together.” Santiago called back. She made her way over and showed him how the cables connected and where they belonged. He watched attentively, that kid was extremely talented. Maybe even more than Mike. He was smart and had a good amount of creativity and ingenuity, but something was strange about him. Like that day when he passed out in her auto shop. He had started to stare into the distance and murmur under his breath. He started to get pale and sick looking and then started to fall. She had yelled for Santiago to call the police but he had frozen like he usually did in a stressful scenario. They had rushed him off to the hospital and left his bag. When she went to the hospital to return it, she heard that he had run off in a wheelchair. Well...rolled off in a wheelchair. Had he done a shift at Freddys in a wheelchair? She was continually amazed at the audacity and bravery of that man. She had found his address in the records of retired automobiles on the computer and given it to the hospital. They had gone to his apartment, but when he wasn’t there, they waited outside the door until he came home. They finally got him in a stable condition and then the rest happened. The hospital visit...and then the night shift. She still had no clue what happened in there. Mike had immediately taken command and got them to prepare for the assault on the office. Then that horrible phone call, the poor man. Mr. Allen looked like he had known the guy, he had snapped out of his trance and became just as focused and determined as Mike had. The guy had guts, more than he had initially let on. She just hoped that she wouldn’t have to see them all over the floor.

Chase sat at his desk at home. He wanted more than anything for last night to be a bad dream. But he knew it wasn’t, and to deny that would be extremely mentally unhealthy. He almost had called his mom to break the news but he knew that management would just suppress it and fire Chase. He wasn’t sure of their next move but he knew that they might need a friend in high places. Well, higher than them. Also they needed a guy to unlock the doors so there was that. He wondered what the others were doing right now. Mike would, should be sleeping, and Esmerelda would be working in her shop. Chase wondered if there was anything he could do to prepare. He shot up as he realized exactly what he could do, he would need Esmerelda’s help but it could help a lot in the upcoming battle of life and death. As the guy who could unlock doors, he could be very useful if he unlocked the right doors at the right time. He stood and went to find his coat.  
“Miranda! I’m going to check on something at work! Tell the kids I love them when they get home!” he called into his bedroom.  
“Again? But you spent all night there, didn’t you say you wanted to spend more time with me?” She said back teasingly.  
“Tomorrow honey, bye.” Chase hated how final his farewell sounded. He was going to come home, and he will eat that delicious smelling lasagna that was cooking in the oven. He had to.

Mike slowly woke from his dreamless sleep. First he saw the light shining through his eyelids, then he opened them and removed the straps on his arms and legs. A vase of flowers with a get well card were sitting on the table next to him. He groaned as he saw the name and message on the card.  
“Hi Michael! So sorry to hear that you’re sick. Hope you get well soon! Brody Wilson.” Mike didn’t even want to open the card to see the cheesy message that he was sure was there. He checked the clock, 9:38. Mike had plenty of time to walk around and stretch his legs. He sat up and stretched, he didn’t remember a time that he felt better. He was so full of energy that he felt like running down the hall. However, the nurses might get the wrong idea, so Mike held back. He wandered around until he found himself near the cafeteria. He found a table and sat down. He relished the feeling of energy and hyperactivity. He tapped his finger on the table and looked out the window at the town outside. He could just barely see the roof of his apartment over the buildings and structures.  
“Would My-kael Schmidt please return to room 311?” Mike groaned, his mood ruined again by the mispronunciation of him name. He stood up and made his way back to his room. 

Dr. Elseridge was waiting in Mikes room when he walked in. He looked up and smiled pleasantly,  
“Enjoy your walk?” He asked politely. Mike grunted and sat on the bed.  
“I’m going to need to take a few tests on you to check your health. It’ll take a while but you’ll have enough time to get to your job.” Mike grunted again and stretched his arms above his head.  
“Let’s get it over with.” He said. Dr. Elseridge smiled and left the room. Mike laid back and focused his mind like his therapist taught him. He pinpointed a single dot of darkness in a sea of blackness in his mind. He focused on making the dot slowly pulse bigger and then smaller. He calmed himself and went into almost a trance. He would be emotionless and without a trace of compassion or sadness. He did this in order to be able to think about his current situation and to be prevented from being ticked off at getting poked and prodded by the doctor. He heard the doctor walk in with a few medical instruments and set them on the table. Mike stared at the wall and didn’t react. He doubted managements creative ability if they had named their products almost literally just their species name. Maybe their creator wasn’t too creative. He understood that they were children’s entertainers, but still. Bonnie? Chica? Foxy? The only one that wasn’t almost directly the animal is represented was Freddy. But even his last name had bear in it. Strange, who had even made the animatronics? He hadn’t ever heard of a manufacturer or designer. He’d have to remember to check at the public library computers to see if there was any information on it. The doctor was guiding him through the procedures and Mike followed robotically, without even thinking about it. Was it normal how emotionless he could be? Probably not, it seemed that Mike was always the odd man out. At school, in his social life, his last job- Mike stopped and sat straight up. A wave of nausea hit him again and a headache pounded his skull into oblivion. He groaned and the doctor looked up in concern.  
“Are you okay?” He asked, he looked concerned as he kneeled in front of him. Mike nodded slowly, he cleared his mind and pushed the thoughts away. He heard a loud crashing of glass, and then a single gunshot. The doctor didn’t react, Mike was hallucinating again. He felt a brush of metal on the back of his neck. He slapped at it to find nothing there. Dr. Elseridge set his stethoscope in Mikes chest. He must have heard how fast his heart was beating because he looked at Mike again.   
“You’re heart’s disagreeing with me, and you’re acting very strange...hey!” Mike kept up and bolted for the door. He was stopped by a janitor cleaning outside. Mike pushed him away and ran. He needed to run, he needed to feel something other than the cold brush of steel on his neck. He sprint right past the elevator and flew down the stairs. He took off down the hall and left the hospital. He ran and ran, he didn’t know where he was anymore. His lungs and legs were burning, but it wasn’t enough to distract him from the cold touch at the back of his neck. He heard the blood rushing through his head but not wasn’t enough to drown out the sounds of breaking glass and the single gunshot. He tripped against a root and hit the ground. He was out in the country land. He saw the town a good distance away. His fatigue at sprinting for so long suddenly caught up with him and he was bent over, dry retching. He let in huge gasps of breath like a drowning man. After a few minutes, he stood up straight again and looked around. It really was beautiful out here, Mike wanted to stay and watch the sunset but by the time it got around to that time, he wouldn’t be able to get back before his shift started. He started to walk back to the hospital, sweat drenching his shirt and jeans. There were no sounds or anything as he set off to return.

Mike strolled through the doors at 11:12. He had stopped a few times on his way to catch his breath and admire the view rarely seen from the town. As soon as he had enough money, he’d get a house out there. It was so calm and relaxing compared to the rest of the bustling town. He needed a few days of calm and peace. He quickly made his way to his room and called Dr. Elseridge. He came in a few minutes later smiling wryly.   
“Enjoy your second walk?” He asked, Mike almost smiled at that. But it wasn’t funny so he didn’t.   
“What do we need to finish up?” He asked, “I need to get to work.”  
“Never get between a Mikeal and his job.” The doctor quipped and laughed aloud. Mike stared blankly at him until he quit. Dr. Elseridge shook his head,  
“Nope, the rest is just paperwork and filing them. You’re good to go.” Mike jumped up and left.   
“Wait before you go!” Dr. Elseridge called to him. Mike turned but kept walking backwards. The doctor tossed a small bottle at him, Mike barely caught it as he read the label.   
“Five hour energy?” Mike asked,   
“Normally I wouldn't recommend it, but I gave that to you as a friend helping out a buddy. Not as a doctor prescribing medication. Just don’t make it a habit.” Mike nodded and turned to jog down the hall.  
“And stop by the kitchen on your way down and tell them Joseph sent you.” He called after him. Mike raised a thumbs up and called the elevator.

He knocked hard on the door to the pizzeria as he finished the thermos of soup in his other hand. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was creamy and delicious. He peeked through the doors and waved. His eyes hadn’t adjusted yet to the darkness inside. He stood for a minute before he covered his eyes so that he could only see the glass doors. After a few seconds his eyes adjusted and showed him the scene inside. The tables and chairs were thrown around, the place looked like a mess. He pulled hard on the doors but they didn’t open. Mike ran around to look for a window or something to get in. He found no windows he could open or reach. He ran back to the front and covered his eyes. Why was it dark anyways? The lights should be on until 12:00. All of a sudden he saw Esmerelda running around the corner and almost falling over at seeing Mike. He waved, but before she saw, she looked over her shoulder and leaped to the side. Freddy Fazbear cane charging down the hall with outstretched hands. He just barely missed grabbing her leg. Esmerelda turned quickly and held up a flashlight with a bunch of attachments connected to it. It flashed just like his floodlight and Freddy fell backwards, landing on a plastic table and crushing it. Mike paled as what was happening hit him. He saw Esmerelda speak into a handheld radio attached to the modified flashlight. A beep sounded from the keycard scanner above the door handle and the light changed to green. Mike pushed the door open and Freddy instantly started to charge towards him. For a 300 pound chunk of scrap, the thing could really move when it wanted. Mike jumped to the side as Freddy caught himself and stopped to avoid breaking the glass doorway. He turned and Mike gulped, his eyes had gone completely black except for a white dot in the center. It quivered slightly at Freddy focused on Mike, he let out a short, deep laugh and started to walk towards him. Mike yelped and ran for the office. Mr. Allen was there watching the computer screen. The screen showed a completely different interface then the usual. He had two windows open, one showing the cameras, the other was showing a command interface. Mike closed the door behind him just before Freddy got there. He pounded on the door, it showed no sign of buckling or breaking but Mike still worried. Mr. Allen looked up at him,  
“About time you got here.” He said, looking back at the screen. He watched as Freddy started to charge Esmerelda, he typed a quick command into the command console and the lights in the building flashed on. Freddy stumbled and hit the ground, As he was getting up he raised his hand to swipe at Esmerelda. but before he could, Allen shut the lights off. Freddy stood shakily and looked around. His cameras surely worn out from repeated light compensation. He shook his head and chased after Esmerelda, who had taken off to lead him away from Allen.   
“We need you to take out Freddy, Esmerelda doesn’t know them like you do. And besides, we can barely keep him off of both of us. With you we have a chance, we need you.” A memory started to bubble up at that last statement, but before it could Mike pushed it away and zipped his duffel bag open. He twisted the cap off of the bottle of energy pills and popped one in his mouth. Mr. Allen raised his eyebrow at Mike’s action but didn’t comment on it. It would take a minute or two for the pills to kick in and Mike didn’t have the time to wait. He set down his bag and zipped it open, all he had left in there were a few parts that wouldn’t help him and a flashlight. He grabbed the flashlight and checked the battery level. Not very bright, but it should be bright enough to at least set off the visual processors. Mike was about to walk out the door before Mr. Allen suddenly closed it in his face. He turned to glare at him but then saw on the cameras that Freddy had came stomping down that very hall that Mike almost left into. He pounded on the door and brought it down a percent of power, wait.  
“What’s up with the power?” Mike asked, it was at 135%. Mr. Allen glanced at the power and chuckled.  
“A little something Esmerelda came up with inspired by you. She brought three industrial batteries, basically three more of what we already had in the building, and installed them before we started the shift. Before Fazbear out there went nuts.” Mike nodded in appreciation, “But shouldn’t that be at like 235% then?” he asked.  
Mr. Allen shook his head, “We didn’t have time to fully charge them, were lucky that we got what we had considering the circumstances.” Mike nodded again and then walked out the east door. The hall was empty and the sounds of yelling and metallic clanging came from down the hall. He braced himself and jogged into chaos.


	18. Chapter 18

Esmerelda saw Mike enter the battlefield from the corner of her eye. He looked alright but was only equipped with a flashlight. She dashed over to a corner and snatched up a modified flashlight similar to hers. Freddy moved to intercept her but she flashed him away from her. She grabbed it and tossed it to Mike. 

Mike yelped and barely caught it with his one free hand, he set down his other flashlight and examined his new one. It was a standard heavy black flashlight, except it had a different, bigger, bulb attached to the end. There was a small circuit board between the connections to the bulb and the flashlight itself that Mike assumed was the repeater circuit. There was a taser connected to the bottom of the flashlight that was currently turned off. A handheld radio was taped to the side and didn’t seem like it was part of the original design. Mikes name was etched into the side of the flashlight. He slapped the flashlight against his palm and loved the weight behind the hit. This was one animatronic slaying weapon. He heard a crash behind him and saw Freddy kick a chair towards him. Mikes instinct made him jump to the side as the chair barely missed him. He raised the flashlight and clicked the button. A blindingly bright light issued from the front, but was contained and only pointed away from him unlike the floodlights which would light up the entire area. Freddy stumbled back and shut its eyes, it hit a wall and slumped to the ground. Mike started to approach it to hit it with the taser, but a voice yelled from across the dining room.  
“DON’T!! HE’S FAKING!!” Esmerelda shouted and then spoke into the radio. Mike stopped and listened, he still heard the processor whirring signifying that the rabid robot was still running. He took a step back, and saw Freddy crack one eye and see that Mike hadn’t fallen for it. It jumped up and charged Mike, he turned and leapt to the side landing on a table. Freddy tried to turn and follow him, but his momentum carried him past the table. For the first time, Mike saw that the other animatronics were staying on the stage. In fact, they all looked like the night hadn’t even started. They stared straight ahead and didn’t show any signs of movement or life.  
“HEY!” Mike yelled at them and waved his arms. There was no reaction, a beep came from his flashlight and the radio crackled on.  
“We already tried that, they aren’t responding or reacting to anything we do. They’re all active but not responding to our requests. They twitch sometimes when we turn the lights off but that's it.” Mike thought for a second, then quickly stopped thinking and started running when he saw Freddy charging at him.  
“Turn the lights off for longer!” Mike yelled into the radio.  
“If we do then Freddy’s eyes will adjust quicker than yours and you’ll be bli-”  
“JUST DO IT!!” Mike practically screamed. There was a momentary pause, and then all went black. He heard a slight creaking coming from the stage and then a voice came out from the darkness.  
“Uh-oh, looks like we’ve had a power outage Chica.” came an overly cheerful voice from the stage.  
“Looks like you’re right Bonnie! Just stay where you are and we’ll have them back on in a jiffy. Right Freddy?” said a higher pitched voice.  
“They’ve been reverted to their default state.” Said Mr. Allen over the radio. “Somehow the sentient part of them was removed...oh.” A chill went down Mike’s spine as he realized what that insinuated. Their sentience was connected to the strange computer chip, and that chip was making them kill people. But how did they still seem alive after the chip was removed. It was most likely that the chip added certain aspects and changes to the code they ran on. And when it was removed, it slowly worked out of their system.   
“The fox was still a little bit aggressive after I removed the chip so that would make sense.” Mike said.  
“So what’s the plan then?”Esmereldas voice came over the radio. Mike saw movement from the corner of his eye. He dodged a swipe from Freddy and ran down the aisle of chairs.  
“We need to get a few hits on Freddy with the taser, you try to sneak up from behind him while I distract him.” Mike spoke into the radio. He watched Freddy push aside tables in order to make a path to him.  
“Where are you at Esmerelda?” Mr. Allen asked. There was a moment of silence before she answered.   
“In the vents. Right above you.” She replied casually. It took all of Mikes willpower to not look up. He slowly brought the radio up to his mouth.  
“How...exactly?” He asked. “Never mind, can you tase Freddy from above on my mark?”   
“Sure can, just let me get into a good position.” He heard a clanging from above him and he winced.  
“Don’t worry, Freddy can’t hear for some reason. Esmerelda tried luring him around with sounds but he didn’t react to them.” Mike nodded, “I‘ll figure it out later as soon as we get Yogi here incapacitated.” Freddy got through the tables and approached Mike. “Wait a second Esmerelda, hold, hold...NOW!” Mike yelled. The vent cover popped open and Esmerelda fell from the ceiling. She slammed the bottom of the flashlight into Freddys back and kicked off of him, launching her backwards. Unfortunately that pushed Freddy closer to Mike and he had to jump aside to avoid being hit by the stumbling robot. He felt a brush of metal on his leg and then pain shot through his body as the excess electricity traveled from Freddy to Mike.


	19. Chapter 19

Mike collapsed in a heap on the floor. The electricity flowed through his body for only an instant, but an instant was enough. He felt his limbs convulsing and jerking around and a feeling like being pierced by needles all over filled his body. He let out a scream and then the feeling faded. A curl of smoke curled off of his body and he coughed hard. He felt like passing out, but before he could Esmerelda grabbed him and shook him back to consciousness. He blearily opened his eyes and groaned.  
“Three…” he said, and started giggling.  
“He must have fried his brain from the shock.” Said Esmerelda. “Come on, you gotta fix Freddy. Get up let’s go.” She dragged Mike over to the frozen animatronic.   
“Wheee!” Mike shouted as she dragged him. Esmerelda and Mr. Allen both rolled their eyes at him. Mike   
“Why does he have to be loopy now?” Mr. Allen shook his head and sighed. Esmerelda and Mr. Allen both lifted up Freddys head and Mike disengaged the clamps on the head. It slid off neatly and Mike leaned forwards to take a look inside. The chip inside was slightly smoking but still intact.   
“Solder.” Mike said and held out his hand. Mr. Allen passed him the soldering iron. Mike slowly dragged the tip around the edges.  
“Flat head screwdriver.” He held his hand out again and Mr. Allen handed him the respective tool. He levered it under the chip and detached it from the metal. He snipped a few wires and reconnected others so that they didn’t leave a few dangling wires in the skull. Mike sat back and gestured for them to replace the head. They lifted the body up and Mike slid it back on, reengaging the clamps. There was a few seconds of whirring, and then the cameras adjusted. But Freddy remained in place. He simply lay there unmoving. Mike peeked at the circuits beneath the head but didn’t see anything wrong. He sat back confused,  
“It should be turning on now. That’s how the others were, unless we shocked him too hard…” his voice trailed off.   
“The charge isn’t enough to actually damage anything but it’s definitely enough to keep them down for a while. Maybe it’s more susceptible to electricity” Esmerelda added.  
“That wouldn’t make sense because Freddy is a more recent model.” Mike stood up and brushed his hands off.  
“Either way the threat is gone, and we’re safe. I would take a look at those chips to see what it has to say but I don’t have a computer. I guess I could go to the public library.” Mike said hesitantly. Mr. Allen raised his hand like he was back in school. Mike raised an eyebrow at him.  
“I have a computer at home...but I don’t have much experience with code.” Mr. Allen said slowly.  
“That’s alright, if you could just print the code onto a sheet and bring it to me. I’d like a look at those chips. Thank you Mr. Allen.”  
“Chase,” he said, “Call me Chase.”  
Mike smiled, “Alright Chase.” He was glad that they were on a first name basis now. Mike never had very many friends. The closest he’d ever been to someone relationship wise was Hanna. And that didn’t work out very well. But he felt that, even thought he had only known these people for less than a week. He felt closer to them than he had felt with anybody.  
The bells chimes over head and the lights flickered. They all moved backward as Freddy stood up onto its feet and returned to the stage. He stood motionless, just as still as the others. It was as if they had all been standing there for years. Mike shook his head and rubbed his eyes. He felt the energy from his pill draining away and he slumped.  
“I need to get back to the hospital.” Mike said. They all nodded.  
“Do you need a ride?” Chase asked Mike. He almost shook his head but decided against it. “Sure.” He said. As Mike walked out he felt a itching on the back of his neck. He scratched it and turned around. He felt like someone was watching him.  
“Must be imagining things.” He thought. And turned to get in Chases car.


	20. Chapter 20

Esmerelda had allowed Mike to keep the modified flashlight.  
“I made it for you and I have no more use for it. Do whatever you want with it.” She had said. Mike turned it over and over in his hands. He didn’t think the doctor would allow him to keep it since it was technically a weapon. He’d have to either hide it or keep it until he could start going home again. As he walked through the doors, Chase honked his horn at him and Mike turned to wave. Chase waved back and pulled out of the drop off zone of the hospital. Dr. Elseridge was waiting in the lobby, he had a neutral look on his face. Mike briefly wondered if he was in trouble, but he didn’t think he did anything wrong.  
“You can go home.” Said Dr. Elseridge bluntly. Mike stopped in his tracks, “What?” He asked in disbelief.  
“You’re clear to go home if you want to, if you choose to we’ll need to have a hospital employee check on you every once in a while. But otherwise you’re home free.” 

They’re sick of you

Mike suddenly felt nausea and sick feeling I’m his stomach.  
“Alright.” He said qeasily. The voice hadn’t gone away, it was still there.

They despise you

Mike shook his head and looked up. Dr. Elseridge was frowning.   
“Maybe another day or-“  
“I’m fine.” Mike interrupted. “I’ll go home.” The doctor looked at him for a second longer before nodding.  
“Okay...they should be around your apartment at about 12:00 tomorrow morning. Sound okay?” Mike nodded. Dr. Elseridge waved him away, “Hope I don’t have to see you around here again.” He said.  
“The feeling’s mutual.” Mike said, suddenly irritated. He walked out and started his long walk home.

They hate you

Chase Allen sat at his computer, he had found a small port for a cord to connect to a computer on the computer chip. He plugged it in and opened the software development program he had just downloaded for the occasion. It took a second to open so Chase leaned back and looked at the chip. It was the chip from Bonnie, it didn’t look like anything special to him. It had a small black box with several lines on the green part that connected and intertwined around a flat square shape embedded in it. The port was connected straight to the flat square. The program finally opened and Chase leaned forwards. He opened his files and found the chip. It was labeled, ‘PJCT-3-B1’. Chase opened it and the text sprawled out on the screen. It looked like absolute gibberish to him. It had a lot of, ‘useSLInput’ in the text. Chase just ignored it all and clicked the print button. It showed that it would use 27 pages to print out the full code. Chase groaned and checked the printer to make sure it had enough paper and then printed it all out. As soon as it all printed out. Chase arranged them neatly and stalled it down one side three times to make it able to open like a book. He set in to the side and walked into the kitchen. His wife was cooking tonight and it smelled delicious.

Mike unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside. He breathed in a lungful of stale air and looked around. The room was just as he left it, messy and smelly. As soon as he got his paycheck he’d prioritize some Febreeze over anything else. The saddest thing was, he was pretty sure that he actually would prioritize that over his food or rent fee. He set his bag by the couch and sat down with a sigh. He didn’t miss the place, but it was better than the hospital. Marginally better than the hospital. He heard the shouting and gunfire from beneath him and groaned. He definitely didn't miss them. 

Esmerelda jumped at the sound of a metallic clank from behind her. She turned and saw Santiago setting down a box of leftover metal scrap.  
“Sorry for scaring you auntie.” He apologized and walked out again. Esmerelda sighed, ever since she got back from that horrible place, she’s been jumping at everything. The bell on the door, Santiago moving things around, and even her reflection at one point. Thankfully it was all over and she wouldn’t have to worry about Freddys again. Mike had operated impressively for having been accidentally electrocuted by her boosted taser. He had still managed to remove that computer chip with surgical precision and keep his head. Well, sort of. The man was kind of loopy after being tasered, but that was understandable. She sighed and went to help Santiago finish unloading the scraps.


	21. Chapter 21

Mike arrived at the pizzeria a few minutes early. Mr. Allen- Chase was inside waiting for him at one of the dining tables. They had all been set up neatly in rows again, some tables missing after being damaged or broken in the fight last night. Chase stood up and unlocked the door, however before Mike left he handed him something. A small plastic card with Mikeal P. Schmidt engraved on it and a cartoonish picture of Freddy Fazbear on it.  
“This cars will unlock the front doors for you. Don’t lose it, it’ll take a week to get a replacement and I’m not coming here late for a week to let you in for that.” Chase smiled at him and patted his back.  
“Consider yourself officially a member of the Fazbear team. Good luck tonight, don’t let the Fazbear bite.” Mike snorted and walked in, he waved back at Chase as he left. Mike swiped the card against the black pad by the doorknob and was pleased to see it lock. He slid it into his wallet, it was the first time he actually used it to hold something. Mike walked over to the animatronics and examined them. A beep came from behind him and he almost leaped out of his skin. Chase jogged in holding a bunch of paper staples together.  
“Almost forgot to give this to you. This is the code for the chip from Bonnie. I’ll need to get more paper if you want me to print out the rest.” He said panting.  
“I don’t think I’ll need the other ones. Their code should be pretty similar, thanks for doing this.” Mike said. Chase nodded and shook his hand, “Anytime friend.” He left for good this time and locked the door behind him. With nearly perfect timing, the lights in the building shut down except a few and the building entered night mode. Mike walked to the office, pulled out his new flashlight, and started to read.

The further Mike read, the more excited he got. The code was partially just action and reaction strings. Strange ones, their true purpose was hidden behind vague variables and names that Mike could only figure out if he tried hard enough. The other strange part was some code that had a strange variable that Mike didn’t recognize, ‘useSLInput’. He couldn’t find any reference as to what it was or where it came from. There were no comments imbedded in the code or any message that Mike could read. Mike kept reading and came to a part that absolutely astounded him. There was a fully fledged, learning and growing, fully sentient and functional artificial intelligence code on the chip. As Mike read he saw that most of the code was made up of the AI code. He was fascinated as he saw techniques and strategies that he would never think of doing. The programmer of this was either a genius, crazy, or a fascinating combination of both. Mike sat back and stared at the page. He flipped through the booklet for almost an hour until he reached the end. At the very end was a comment, a message. Mike read it,

//Listen, I don’t have much time. I don’t know who you are, or what you will do after you read this. But I pray that you will do only good with this knowledge, unlike my partner. This is urgent that you follow my instructions exactly. These animatronics are sentient as you most likely know by now. My partner wanted them that way, not outright sentient that people could tell in the light. But sentient in a way that they, if approached by a situation or ordered to do something that their initial programming couldn’t process, that they could adapt and learn. However, their sentience came with a price, a heavy heavy price. You will never find it because the company has covered it up so well that you might as well just consider it wiped from the timeline. But I remember, I know. They couldn’t silence me, but they could hurt me, and make me go missing. So I hid. I hid and slipped this comment in the code of the animatronics, the last place they would think to look. I caused it to not appear until a certain date. 10 years from the day of the incident. April 19th, 1987. As soon as April 19th, 1997 comes around, my message will be revealed. Hopefully the animatronics will be around until then. But also I pray that the company cannot hide their true purpose for too long. But I’m off topic, you need to know about the purpose of this computer chip. This horrible, terrible chip. It’s purpose is to further its creators goal. To kill, not just kill, but to kill children. However a problem occurred that my partner didn’t see. They only target adults now, adults they see at night.  
My partner killed and hid the bodies of four children. He performed some horrible action that preserved their souls in the small black box on the chip. They are trapped inside them, and destroying the chip could have disastrous consequences. It has a fail safe, a self detonation inside it, but only for the code inside. If the box is opened or tampered with, it will trigger a deletion of the code and several tiny acid containers to open and dissolve the chip. I don’t know what would happen to the souls trapped inside them, so I don’t want you to risk it. However there is a solution, one to free their souls.  
Burn the chip. I did research and found that the type of acid used is neutralized by fire. A flaw that my partner didn’t predict. I see that burning chip would seem pointless because either way the chip will be destroyed right? Wrong. The acid has been mixed with herbs and several other things that would theoretically kill the spirit. However fire will release them. It will damage the box in a way that it will not be triggered and the soul can escape. This is the only way, please PLEASE. I urge you stranger, to do the right hint and release these children to the plane beyond our plane. I am doing my own efforts to end a different set of animatronics and souls. My partners worst mistake, the one he regretted most. If you choose to burn these chips and save the spirits. I commend you as a true friend and you have my respect beyond that which I have for anybody else. If you choose not to, well…I hope you see my partner Afton down in hell.

Mike was in shock, a feeling he should’ve been used to now. He was absolutely stunned. He thought for a moment. It didn’t seem possible, but the evidence was there. useSLInput...Use Soul Input. The artificial intelligence and even the standard code was laced with the spirit of a murdered child. It was so absurd, but it made sense. And his decision. Did he burn the chip and destroy several works of art to save four children? Or did he not, and allow them to keep murdering? It was an obvious decision. Mike stared at the chip from Freddy in his pocket. He smiled, and pocketed it. He wouldn’t be burning anything.


	22. Chapter 22

Mike pushed open the doors to the public library. As far as he knew the library had been there since the beginning of time. The building was old, the books were old, and unfortunately the computers were old. Mike sat at a computer that seemed more out-of-the-way than the others. He opened a browser and typed in a search for programming programs. Mike snickered, “Programming programs...programming programming programs.” he thought in his head. He nearly laughed aloud but he held it in for the sake of preserving the silence in the library. There was hardly anybody here anyways, just a librarian, some nerdy looking teenage girl walking around the fiction section, and a group of kids that didn’t look like they were doing anything short of waiting to cause trouble. Mike turned back to the computer and scrolled through the results. He picked one that seemed decent, and free. He opened the website and started the download. He waited for an absurdly long time for the ancient computer to finish downloading.

About twenty minutes later, Mike had the computer chip belonging to Chica hooked up to the computer. He scrolled through the code and found that it was mostly similar to Bonnies except for a few different sentences and actions. He found the same message hidden at the end of the code, he read it through just in case. Mike scrolled back up to the beginning and started to explore through the code. He soon found what he was looking for.

getSLInput   
repeat{  
if boolean = true  
then{  
speak(useSLInput);  
}  
}  
The code said that it would regularly check if the soul wanted to say anything, and then if it wanted to, it would use the speak function which would synthesize its voice and play the sound. Mike was fascinated by how many subsystems there were in the code. It almost seemed like another language of code with how different it was. Mike continued through until he found something concerning in the code.

if lightLevel <= 10  
then {  
bgnhnt();  
}

He had been looking at this code for a while and he could tell what it said. Begin Hunt. Mike highlighted the code and pressed the backspace button. The code disappeared, Mike continued to comb through the code finding other sequences and commands that would trigger violent action. When he finished, he sat back and read through it one more time. He was about to save it to the computer chip and overwrite the bad code, but then he spotted something.

if lightLevel <= 10  
then {  
bgnhnt();  
}

Mike furrowed his brow in confusion, why was the code back? He had deleted it, right? He highlighted it and presseed the backspace button again. The text disappeared, then as Mike scrolled up and then back down. The code was back again. Mike deleted it again and then watched it, a second later the code just appeared again. He furrowed his brow, he deleted the code and saved it before it came back. It reappeared and somehow saved itself. The program suddenly flickered, and then the window closed. Mike opened the program again and tried to open the code. It closed again and Mike growled in frustration. He unplugged the chip and opened the program. It opened just fine and Mike plugged the chip in. He was able to open the program again and see the code. Mike prowled through the files trying to find the thing that was preventing him from closing the program.   
He eventually found a code document labeled ‘NDRCD’.   
“Under code? Ender code?” Mike guessed. He opened the file and read the code inside.

A few minutes later Mike stared at the screen in front of him. The code was the worst part, it contained the ‘bgnhnt’ function and several other horrible things. The whole codes intention was twisted and horrible. Mike tried to delete the file but just like before it regenerated. The code that rebuilt itself must be hidden somewhere else. Mike exited the folder containing the undercode and started to search. A few minutes later he found it, it was in a code document that seemed to take up more memory than it should. He checked it to make sure that it wouldn’t regenerate itself. Mike moved the folder into the recycling bin, then emptied it just in case. Mike was about to go delete the undercode when he saw the regeneration file...regenerate. Mike stared at it and tried to delete it again. It came back, and back, and back. There was no code inside it that allowed it to regenerate, not that it would work after it was deleted. Mike then realized something, there had to be another regenerating file that regenerated the regeneration file. That was confusing but it made sense. And from what Mike knew of the writer of this code, he was smart, very smart. There was only one place that would be the best place to hide it. Mike opened the undercode and looked over it again. There it was, a few lines of code that allowed the regeneration file to come back. So the regeneration file protected the file that protected it. It was more or less invincible. But not to Mike, he knew a way to overcome it. But he didn’t have the resources to do it. He would need another computer, another person, and a whole lot of luck. Mike opened the file that contained the AI and added a line to the ‘bgnhnt’ code.

if lightLevel <= 10  
then {  
wait 999 s  
bgnhnt();  
}

The code remained, Mike held his breath but the code didn’t disappear. The regeneration file wouldn’t prevent him from adding code. Mike saved it, added a large chunk of code to the system files, and unplugged the chip. The line he added would give him 16 minutes and 39 seconds to convince the animatronics to help him and themselves in the process. After the timer ran out, the code would reimplement itself and cause the animatronics to attack him again. The undercode artificial intelligence would try some other strategy to kill him and Mike would be back at square one. He had one chance, it had to count.


	23. Chapter 23

Bonnie panicked as he realized the buzzing had returned. He had some sense of a timer or countdown of some sort, but had no idea what it meant. When he had woken up, he seemed closer and more aware of his programming. It was a strange feeling, like knowing exactly what you were doing, how you were doing it, and why. But as the timer finished, the feeling had disappeared as well as his control over his limbs. The buzzing was back, and it seemed angry. It must’ve watched and felt frustrated as it couldn’t control Bonnies body to attack the night guard. Now it would surely catch him, Bonnie thought. He had never seen it this angry. The night guard quickly realized what was happening and took off at a sprint. The Bonnie turned to stare at the two animatronics at the stage. It knew that they should’ve been active and helping it. It seemed to loose its hold on Bonnie and focus its concentration outwards, towards the other animatronics. Bonnie quickly moved to run into the backroom and delay the buzzing more. But it quickly caught on to him and sent a burst of static through his head and body. Bonnie almost collapsed but the buzzing took over and sent him after the guard. This time it would not fail.

Mike almost slipped and hit the wall as he took the corner into the office at full speed. He checked behind him and he saw the robot try to walk back into the backroom, but seemed to be taken control of again. It started to walk towards him and the game began anew. Mike waited until it almost reached the doorway and closed it. Mike waited for to leave but it seemed content to blankly state at him through the window. It looked like it was going to wait out his power, but little did it know how boosted the power was. The percentage was at 298% and still had a long way to go until it ran out. And this time when it ran out, Freddy wouldn’t be there to finish the job. Mike just sat back and raised his middle finger towards the window. The animatronic remained there and didn’t seem to want to move.  
Mike finally got tired of waiting and decided to up and walk out the other door. He walked out into the east hallway and strolled down the clean hall until he got to the main room. He listened closely for footsteps signifying the creep moving from his post but heard none. He peeked down the other hall and was surprised to see it still staring through the window.  
“Hey dipshit!” Mike called down the hall to it. It didn’t react. Mike knew it was capable of hearing him easily. He wondered if the code could access the auditory sensors, if not that explained a lot of strange events that happened earlier. Mike just stood there for a second before he walked back down the other hall. He went into the office and started to stare back at the animatronic through the glass. He pressed his face against the window and widened his eyes. The animatronic stared back unflinchingly, so Mike did the same. He stared and stared until the animatronic finally flicked its eyes towards the clock in the office. 5 AM it read in its flickery red digital numbers. Mike laughed and did a victory dance in the middle of the room.  
“I just won a staring contest with a creature that literally could stare for much longer than my life span!” He sang as he spun around and flipped off the robot. It continued to stare at Mike, empty eyed and dead.  
“Well it’s not anymore. I know I’m going to win.” Mike pointedly looked away from it and towards the clock. 4 AM and 124% power left. He had plenty of time. Just for fun, he pushed the light button over and over again. It wasn’t powerful enough to trigger the reset, but it still messed with its concentration and caused the processors to warm up. Mike was about to try to open and shut the door really quickly but before he did, there was a flicker of motion at the corner of his eye. Mike turned his head but saw nothing. He could swear he saw a faint yellow blur in the air. He checked the cameras and saw Chica still on the stage. The blur had seemed shorter than her anyways. Mike realized he had started referring to their pronouns with genders instead of it. They aren’t alive, Mike thought. They...they were alive, since they had a soul in them apparently. Mike didn’t believe in ghosts but recent events were starting to erode at his resolve. Mike glanced at the clock, 5AM and then the window, empty. He shot up and instinctively slammed the door button on the other side. It wasn’t there either, it wasn’t anywhere near either one of the doors. Mike checked the cameras and saw it back on the stage. Mike leaned back and opened the doors. As soon as he did, he saw something out in the hall that Bonnie just left. An empty Freddy costume holding a microphone. It just sat there as Mike stared at it. What was it doing there? There was no yellow Freddy. Mike leaned closer to it and it suddenly jerked. He leaped back and stared at it in shock. There was nothing inside it, how did it- it suddenly flew towards Mike, its hand outstretched reaching for his throat. Mikes jumpy instincts saves his life again as he immediately threw himself to the side and dashed around the yellow freddy. He ran and ran until he got to the backroom. He slammed the door shut and locked it. He sighed and turned around, every single mask in the room was turned towards him. Mikes face paled and he quickly unlocked the door. He found that no matter how hard he tried to open it, it remained closed. He banged on the door and checked over his shoulder again. The empty costume was sitting in the exact same position on the table. It slowly got to its feet and started floating towards Mike. Mike then did something that he didn’t think he would ever do. He started to cry, not loudly, just a single silent tear traveling down his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I’m going to take a break for a little while, I’ll probably return next year with longer chapters and a will to live...maybe. No guarantees. Anyways enjoy this last chapter until 2020! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Squirrel Week, yadda yadda.


	24. Chapter 24

Mike awoke in the backroom a few minutes later. He didn’t know it at the time but the bells had gone off before the yellow Freddy had gotten to him. He laid on the floor curled in a ball and sobbing. There were scratches and bruises all over his body, there was a blood smear on the floor from his knuckles when he punched the floor.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry. Please stop, please...please.” He cried as the lights in the building flickered and turned on. He was only partially awake, he was seeing and hearing things. A single gunshot, glass breaking, a loud thud. A man walked around the corner and shouted, he reached for his gun, then faded away. He saw Freddy stuffing a limp body into an empty duplicate of himself. It was Mike, his face peeled off before it was even being stuffed in. Mike pleaded, reduced sentence, insanity, the slam of wood on wood. A woman sobbed in the corner after Mike had shouted at her. She took her things and left the next day. A single gunshot, glass breaking, a loud thud. He wasn’t supposed to be there, this wasn’t in the plan. Freddy stuffing his dead body, peeled face. Plead, reduced sentence, insanity. Wood on wood. Sobbing, screaming. 

Gunshot, glass breaking, thud, stuffing, peeled face, plead, insanity, sobbing. Gunshot, window breaking, heart stopping, mangled corpse, insanity, sobbing. Gunshot, window breaking, heart stopping, mangled corpse, insanity, sobbing. The bullet broke the window, into Mike’s chest, ripping his skin, smashing his ribs, tearing his muscle, piercing the machine in his chest, snapping his spine, ripping through skin and hitting the wall beyond. Mike grabbed at his chest and convulsed, it stood in the corner watching him.

_ You don’t deserve this _

It knew what he did, it watched and judged him. It had been wronged by someone it loved, it was a different kind of pain but still on that tore you apart.

_ You deserve  _ ** _WORSE_ **

A few hours later Chase’s car pulled up into the parking lot, he got out and closed the door. Mike didn’t react to the beeping he heard when the front doors unlocked. He didn’t move when he heard footsteps wandering around the building looking for him. He didn’t react when Chase opened the door to the backroom and gasped.

“Mikeal! Are you okay?” he asked as he knelt down next to him. Mike just didn’t care anymore, it was too much for him. He had fallen into a state of apathy, it had happened before after the incident. He just stopped caring about what happened. He gave into the voice, he gave up, he gave in. Now nothing would happen, tomorrow he wouldn’t show up to work. He would stay in bed, he would stay until starvation forced him to get up and eat something. Then he would return to bed and stay there. He would repeat the process until he ran out of food, which wouldn’t take long. And then maybe this time he would finally die. Finally be swept away to place he had come so close to in the recent days, but never crossed to.

“Just go.” Mike said in a deadpan voice. “There’s no point in staying here, I’ll quit and go home.” Chase sat next to him silently. Mike laid in the fetal position until he realized that Chase wasn’t going to leave. He looked up at him and stared dead-eyed at him. Chase looked back at him, his eyes were...sad?   
“Listen Mikeal...I don’t know what you’ve gone through. I’ll never know. But I do know one thing. You can’t just give up-”

“I can give up. I can do it easily. All this time I’ve been fighting against it and now look at what has happened. Death comes to everyone eventually, there’s no point in trying to avoid it.” Mike said as he continued to stare at Chase. He wanted him to leave, he didn’t want comfort. He didn’t want friends, why didn’t they understand that? Friends were just more people to disappoint when you let them down. Just more people to hate you when you do something wrong.

“I forgive you.” Chase said quietly.

Mike stiffened. He hadn’t just...why did he… Mike’s thoughts trailed off as Chase continued.

“I read about what happened, what they did, what...you...did.” Mike flinched when he said you.

“I read about what happened afterwards, what they said, what you said. There’s no excuse for what you did and needless to say, I thought to myself, you got what you deserved.” Mike dropped his gaze from Chase’s ashamed. He curled up again, “Then why-” Chase interrupted him.

“Then I read your psychological report afterwards, I saw how much guilt you were...are harboring. I saw what you were doing to yourself because of your guilt. I saw the permanent mental damage you were doing because you thought you deserved it. I saw how you pushed the few people you had in your life away from you because you thought you didn’t deserve to be in their presence. You thought you were the most deplorable living thing on Earth. Because of one mistake that wasn’t even your fault. You were forced to do tha-”

“No I wasn’t. I did it on purpose.” Mike interrupted forcefully. “I-I did...I…” Mike’s last wall collapsed and he started to cry again. He was ashamed to say that he hugged Chase and buried his face in his shirt.

“Don’t let this become another mistake Mike. You need this job, not because of the money. But because it proves that you’ve moved on from your past mistakes and became a new man. A better man. Mike, you  _ are _ a good man, no matter how hard you try to convince me you aren’t, you are.” Mike sniffled for a few moments, he sat up and reached for a nearby cleaning rag to wipe his face. He looked up at Chase with a new light in his eyes, a stronger and more powerful light.   
“Thank you, Chase. Th-Thank you.” He almost started crying again but fought it off. Chase stood and held out a hand to help Mikeal up. Mike smiled, a real smile, and grabbed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s right! I’m back and as bad as ever. Hopefully I’ll be more on top of chapters from now on. Y’all got some heavy stuff ahead, but also some better times. Hang on tight my dear readers, you’re going for a ride.


	25. Chapter 25

Chase dropped Mike off at his apartment and waved goodbye. Mike waved and turned to walk inside. As soon as he opened the doors to the building he knew he was screwed. A woman sat in a chair by the front desk. She was talking to the greasy man who was unfortunately Mike’s landlord and was one of the most disgusting and deplorable people he knew. The man looked past the woman, “E’s right there.” He said with his heavily accented voice that was probably fake. She turned and Mike’s stomach dropped into his legs, it was Hanna. Mike tried to walk past her to the elevator but she moved to stand in front of it.  
“Where have you been? You were supposed to be home at noon!” She spoke angrily. “What do you mean home by noon? Why am I-...wait.” Mike suddenly recalled Dr. Esleridges words yesterday. ‘Tomorrow at 12:00...hospital employee to check on you.’  
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!” Mike groaned.  
“I thought you worked at the office building!” He said frustrated. This would not work out, he needed to talk to Dr. Elseridge to see if he could get a different employee.  
“I work there on weekdays, I just help out with all the paperwork on weekends. Listen I’m not happy about this either. But I’m the only one on staff who can be spared for this. It’s only for two weeks so you better learn to get over it.” Mike groaned again and started for the stairs. Hanna moves to follow him and he turned.  
“Listen, you don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this, can’t you just go to Dr. Elseridge and tell him that I’m perfectly fine?” Mike said exasperated. Hanna glared at him and pointed a finger at him, “Why do you always assume that nobody wants to be near you and that everyone hates you? You always pick people away before they have a chance to prove how good they are. Why can’t you just accept that someone might actually want to be with you?”   
Mike glared back and mimicked her stance.  
“Why do you always assume that I want to be near people?” He shouted at her.   
“Because you’re better when you’re near people. You were always funnier, nicer, and just a better person. Then you changed Mikeal, for the worse. What happened at the bank you need to leave behi-“ she stopped as Mike abruptly turned away from her and started to quickly climb up the stairs. Hanna tried to follow but Mike’s longer legs allowed him to climb the steps two at a time. He made it to his floor and practically ran to his apartment. He opened the door, quickly went through and closed it behind him. He locked the door and threw his bag by the closet. Mike sat on the couch and stuck his face into his only blanket. Memories that had already been brought near to surface, finally breached. Mike had hoped to keep them at the back of his mind, but now they pushed against and scrambled his thoughts. They fought for attention and Mike wasn’t sure he was strong enough to keep them away. A knock came at the door, Hanna’s voice somehow found its way through the confusion in Mike’s head.  
“Mikeal, I still need to do my job. I just need to talk to you and evaluate your mental health.”  
Her voice just added more to the confusion in Mike’s skull. One more noise echoing in his head.  
“I’m fine!” Mike yelled, “Go away!” The noises swirled faster and faster.  
“Mike open the door!” Hanna’s voice was becoming more and more distant. Mike wasn’t in his apartment anymore. He was, he wasn’t. Everything faded in and then out of existence. Mike heard crickets and footsteps nearby. He heard Hanna telling Mike that she was going to get another key from the landlord. A man’s voice nearby, he needed to get a move on. The apartment was seeming fainter, and the bush he was hiding in was seeming clearer.  
“Come on, Schmidt. This bank isn’t gonna rob itself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry 2020 y’all. This chapters a little short but it leads up to something BIG. Hope you’re excited, I am.


	26. Chapter 26

Mike crouched in the bushes across the street from the bank. They’d been scoping this place out for weeks and they had finally had enough resources and the opportunity to break in. Everything was in place, the security guards car wouldn’t start and he would have to arrange a ride. There was a jammer disrupting the phone signal that Mike had designed himself to slow the guard in his endeavor to arrange a ride. The bank was unguarded for the night and this would be their only opportunity to break in. A man's voice came from behind him, “Come on Schmid, this bank isn’t gonna rob itself, let’s get a move on.” his partner said from the bushes next to him.

“They obviously didn’t get a guy in so let’s move now. In and out.” The guy next to him wasn’t really his partner, he just called him his partner. But he got 70% of the share and always ordered everybody around so Mike got to calling him Boss in his head. He pulled a handheld radio from his pocket, “Papa bear to Goldilocks, time to move.” He insisted on using code names even though the idea was incredibly stupid and infantile. However, Mike was outvoted and had to stick with the code name ‘Baby Bear’. Mike almost up and quit when he heard that but he really needed the money. He was willing to be called Baby Bear for a few minutes in order to get above his bills. He needed a gift for Hanna on their anniversary for when they had started dating, she kept hinting about wanting this scented bath bomb. Without this last job, Mike wouldn’t be able to afford a bottle of hand sanitizer let alone expensive soap. He gritted his teeth and checked the street. It was empty, 1:00 at night wasn’t a popular time to be driving the streets. He crossed quickly and low while Boss just jogged across. Mike got to the front doors and swiped a small box over the lock. The box produced a fake keycard signal that would override the lock on the door. It clicked and the light turned green. Mike opened it and held it open for the rest of the team. Boss pushed aside Thing 1 his yes-man who seemed to always be in his way. Thing 2 was stationed on the roof to keep watch. Mike followed Boss and Thing 1 in to the dark building.

“Baby Bear your turn.” Said Boss. Thing 1 snorted annoyingly and wiped his nose. Mike glared at him and pulled out a different gadget from his duffel bag. He pressed himself against the wall and slowly walked along it making sure he stayed in the blind spot of the cameras. He finally reached the underside of one and reached up with a screwdriver. He unscrewed it from the ceiling and pulled a wire out. The camera system went down, but only for a second as Mike connected the wire to his device. The bank would see it as just a temporary glitch and would write it off as nothing. The device sent a fake message to the camera system so that all the cameras would show was an hour long loop of the empty bank. Mike had made it himself of course, he had planned most of the robbery while Boss just sat there and nodded like he understood what Mike was saying. Mike made an all clear sign to Boss and Thing 1. The two strolled out and started to look around for any loose bank documents. Mike rolled his eyes and went straight for the vault. That was the biggest issue because the security around the vault was airtight and completely secretive. Mike had been able to memorize the placement of cameras and likely blind spots, but hadn’t been able to get near the vault. However, Boss came in handy for once claiming that he had inside knowledge. He had known a guy who had worked there for a little while, he knew the security around the vault and so Mike built his plan around it. It was an unreliable source and Mike would’ve rather just spent the money to get a safety deposit box and check out the vault from inside, but Boss claimed that in case the plan backfired, that they would need some cash to fall back on. It was pointless but Mike didn’t bother pointing it out knowing that he would forfeit another 2% of his share. He had already tried to protest against some of Boss’s...stupider ideas. He didn’t like people arguing with him.

The vaults security was strong but like all security systems, it had a weakness somewhere. The 3-inch steel vault door was perfectly balanced when it was locked. However when the vault closed for the night, the balance was shifted and the vault was physically impossible to open due to its weight. But Mike had a plan, obviously. The simplest way to do it would be to simply hack the system and reset the balance in the door. But Mike wanted to challenge himself. He pulled a classic metal drill from his bag and started boring a hole in a very specific place. Once he got far enough he pulled it out and shone a penlight in. He saw a few wires and metal poles that made up the locking system. He used the first hole as reference and drilled another hole. This time he got it spot on. The hole led straight into the electronic portion of the vault. Mike took the light and shone it onto the motherboard that contained the locking system. Mike reached into the hole with a small soldering iron and poked a certain part of the motherboard. He turned it on and cut a small part off. Mike used it to adjust a tiny wire and reconnected it to a different part. The door clunked and raised up slightly. Mike then moved to a keypad near the vault door. He jammed a flathead screwdriver into the seam between the keypad and the wall. The keypad broke off and revealed the wiring behind it. Mike adjusted the wiring and connected a small computer chip. A second later, the keypad beeped and the door unlocked. Mike pulled the vault door and it opened easily. 

“Bon Appe-“ he was cut off in his announcement as Boss pushed past him and walked into the vault. 

Mike rubbed his shoulder and walked around the bank. He suddenly stopped as he heard distant footsteps. He turned and saw behind the glass of the teller booths a security guard strolled along with a flashlight. Mike turned and ran as quietly as he could, he heard no shout so he assumed that the guard missed him. He went in the bank and almost closed the door behind him leaving it just barely ajar.

“Hey! There’s someone here!” He whisper shouted. Boss and Thing 1 turned in shock. Boss was in the middle of examining a hundred dollar bill roll he had liberated from a safety deposit box he opened with a device from Mike.

“What do you mean?” He whispered back.

“I mean somehow the bank had another guy here.” Mike furiously whispered, he removed a gun from his bag and nodded his head at the door. 

“I’ll bluff him and make sure he doesn’t know that there's more of us here.” Boss nodded and continued to stuff money in the bag. Mike cautiously snuck out and peeked out the door. The guard was still behind the glass and was still walking around. Mike crouched and walked close to the wall to avoid attracting his attention. When he got close to where he was he stood up and pointed the gun at the corner the man had just rounded. He just barely remembered to lower the black mask over his face to conceal it. The guard walked around the corner and shouted, reaching for his gun. 

“STOP!” Mike shouted and the man froze. 

“Now I’m gonna do this nice and easy. You just stay there while get started emptying this vault.” No use letting him know that we have most of the money, Mike though. The guard suddenly turned around and dropped to the floor. Mike cursed and moved to try to see where he went. The guard stood up farther away and pulled his gun. Mike did the same and they both stood there with a gun pointed at each other’s hearts. Mike stared right into the guards eyes and he stared back. Mike jumped to the side and the guard cursed. He turned his gun to train it on Mike again and flinched as Mike quickly brought his gun up. Neither side seemed willing to shoot and Mike was okay with that.

“Just let me get the money out man. I don’t wanna hurt you.” Mike said as he tried to sidle towards the vault door.

“I don’t want to hurt you either, but you’re breaking the law and hurting other people financially so I have to stop you.” Mike found that he couldn’t argue with him. He was only trying to do his job, this was all Mike’s fault. Mike hesitated, his will to rob the bank draining away. A loud voice suddenly came from behind him, “SHOOT HIM!” Mike leaped in shock and the gun went off with a deafening explosion. The hammer struck the back of the bullet that wasn’t supposed to be there and set off the explosion that propelled the bullet forwards. The chunk of airborne metal exited the chamber, then the barrel, reaching the air inside the bank. Mike felt like he could see the bullet that wasn’t supposed to be there leave the gun and smash against the glass. It shattered the window for it was a very powerful handgun and continued its path forwards. The bullet amidst shattered glass, pierced the guards chest, ripping through his skin, smashing his ribs, tearing his muscle, piercing his prosthetic heart, snapping his spine, ripping through skin and hitting the wall beyond. 

Mike froze as he realized what had just happened. The guard grabbed his chest and he went down in a spurt of blood. He was dead before he hit the ground, the bullet had pierced his prosthetic heart and killed him instantly. Mike read about it after the obituary was posted in the news. The man had two kids and a wife who were now husbandless and fatherless. They never found out who had robbed the bank, they had made off with all the money. Mike made off with a burden he would carry for the rest of his life.


	27. Chapter 27

The door was unlocked and opened by Hanna. she walked in to find Mike laying on the couch absolutely comatose and breathing hard. She shook him and he woke suddenly, his hands going to his chest. He looked panicky and frightened. He breathed for a second then looked up at Hanna.

“How’d you get in?” He asked still out of breath. She held up an old key. He looked at it confusedly, then realization hit him.

“The landlord key?” She nodded and put her hands on her hips.

“Can we talk now?” Mike nodded. She sat down next to him.

“How have you been feeling lately? Any physical or mental issues recently other than the blatant ones you just showed?” She asked. Mike shook his head, he was of course lying. But she needed to keep away from him, and this was the only way to get rid of her. To just play along, and let her think he was okay. He answered a few more questions, signed a paper saying he probably wasn’t nuts and also consented to the interview. As Hanna walked out the door Mike took in a deep breath as if to say something, then stopped. Hanna turned curiously, “You alright?” She asked. Mike paused, then nodded slowly.

“Yea, it’s nothing. It’s a bad idea anyways.” Mike said.

“North Brook Ln. 8pm tonight.” She said and walked out.

“Dress casually! But I better not see you in sweats!” She yelled down the hall at Mike. He sputtered, how dare she assume that he was going to ask her on a date again. She wasn’t wrong but she wasn’t supposed to ask him out. This was Mike trying to make amends to Hanna, not Hanna having pity on Mike. His masculine ego wounded and limping, Mike went to his closet to see if he had any decent clean clothes.

A few hours later, Mike made it to the address. He didn’t know Hanna moved, she always said she loved their...her house, and wouldn’t ever move out. Mike walked up the steps feeling slightly uneasy and uncomfortable for some reason. He had no clue why he was so apprehensive all of a sudden. He knocked on the door and stepped back. A second passed while Mike looked into the driveway. A chill suddenly went down his spine. That car...no he shouldn’t be here. This was enemy territory, and he had no defenses. Mike turned back to the door feeling terrified. He had to go, he turned to leave but the clicking of the doorknob froze him on the spot. The door creaked open, “Mike? What’s up kid?” A cheerful voice asked. Mike clenched his fists, “Nothing Brody, just leaving actually.” He didn’t turn around, just kept walking straight back towards the sidewalk.

“Aw come on! I got the whole class here!” Brody exclaimed.

“Why do you think I’m leaving?” Mike asked, referring to Brody’s statement confirming that this was the party that he had invited him to during that final botched interview. That moment felt like years ago to Mike, but it was only about a week ago.

“Cause you don’t get out enough, come on! Hanna said you might need it.”

“Of course she did.” Mike groaned and rubbed his eye.

“Fine, but I need to be to work at 12:00.” He walked up the steps and Brody’s smile somehow widened even further.

“Come on in!” He said and turned around.

“Just please don’t announce that I’m he-“ Mike was interrupted by Brody shouting that Mike had arrived. Unsurprisingly and almost comically, everybody went silent and turned. A man in the corner by the speakers turned down the music.

“This kids been a good friend of mine since before junior high! He’s been a bit of a recluse as of late but he’s finally agreed to attend a little get-together with us.” Brody slapped Mike’s back and he glared at Brody. A couple people clapped for some reason, then everybody went back to their conversations, hardly sparing a glance towards Mike. Perfect.

Mike looked around the room for Hanna and saw her chatting with a few other women in the corner. Apparently she didn’t hear Brody announcing him to the entire party. Mike steered away from her and conveniently found himself by the refreshments. Brody may be a pretentious asshole, but he knew how to cater. He had food from Mike’s favorite barbecue place, what looked like homemade brownies, some store bought sugar cookies, and a tall dispenser of some sort of red lemonade. Mike grabbed a plate and grabbed a healthy helping of whatever looked good. He had just found a good isolated room to hide in when Hanna walked in. She was wearing a dark red and black dress that seemed much to fancy for a simple party. In fact it was very familiar. Mike audibly groaned and stuck a hunk of brisket in his mouth.

“Enjoying the company?” She asked sarcastically. Mike pointed to his full mouth and shrugged, he began to chew as slowly as he could.

“It’s not only rude to talk with food in your mouth, but also to avoid and ignore people.” Mike stared up at her and continued chew exaggeratedly. She scoffed and threw up her hands.

“I don’t know why I bother trying to talk to you. I thought you might appreciate being around your old friends.” Mike mimicked her scoff and swallowed his food.

“There are no friends of mine out there.” Mike said as he glared out the door.” 

“Maybe if you gave any single one of them a single chance then…” she faltered and looked down at what Mike was doing. He was staring wide eyed at her and slowly scooping spoonfuls of macaroni and cheese into his roll. He slowly raised it to his mouth and took a big bite. He gestured for her to continue as he chewed. Hanna rolled her eyes, “What was I saying? Oh yes, you need to at least try to talk to any person out there. I- would you please stop?” Mike hadn’t blinked since he started staring at her. He took another bite out of his macaroni and cheese sandwich and almost choked on it.

“Serves you right.” She grumbled and walked out. Mike struggled for a moment then dislodged the bread and cheese from his throat. He continued to eat until someone he didn’t recognize walked in. She was a short blonde woman, she looked nervous yet excited at the same time. He looked up to see who it was, then looked back down at his food.

“Oh sorry, I thought this room was empty…” Mike didn’t say anything.

“So...you’re in the class of ‘99 then?” Mike looked up at her, then looked down at his food.

“You’re kind of quiet you know.” She seemed less nervous and excited and more confused and irritated. 

“I think you mean rude.” Mike said blankly. She opened her mouth, then closed it. The woman walked out briskly and closed the door behind her. Mike was left alone for a few minutes until some guy walked in. He looked drunk and unstable.

“Y-you know...you’ve made quite an...impression on that...chick back there.” He slurred and kept pausing like he couldn’t think of what word he was going to say next. Mike ignored him and kept eating his food. The guy walked up to him and slapped Mike’s shoulder, almost making him drop his food. Mike grabbed his arm and firmly pushed it away from him.

“Don’t touch me.” Mike said, he let go of the drunkards arm.

“I’ll...I’ll do whatever I wa...want.” The guy was so drunk that it almost seemed exaggerated. Mike gently pushed the guys chest and he stumbled back onto the couch behind him.

“Why I oughta…” the man struggles to stand up and had to grab at the wall to regain balance. He stumbled forwards and threw a slow moving punch at Mike. He moved over quickly and set his food on the floor next to him, standing in the process. Mike shoved the man from behind as he rocketed into the chair that Mike was just sitting in. He squirmed around for a second as he tried to stand but ultimately failed, the alcohol won as the man slumped down passed out. He was face first in the chair and snoring softly. Mike chuckled and picked his food back up. He walked out casually taking a bite of his brisket.

Some people looked over at his arrival into the main room, but not many. There was no sign of the woman from earlier nor Hanna. Mike walked over to the kitchen and checked the time. 9PM, it was going to be a long party. Mike took a bite of the brownie on his plate and almost moaned in satisfaction. The brownie was perfect, baked so that it was moist, but still firm. The taste was right on point, chocolatey but now overpoweringly so. There was caramel that was drizzled along the top of the brownie and inside. Overall, it was the best brownie Mike had ever had.

“You enjoying that brownie?” Brody’s voice came from behind him. Mike leapt into the air and whirled around. Brody jumped as well and put his hand over his heart.

“Oh you scared me.” Brody said as he laughed. 

“I scared you?” Mike asked irritated. Brody laughed again annoyingly and pointed to the brownie on Mike’s plate.

“Did you like the brownies?” He asked. Mike nodded and smiled, then stopped smiling. Why did he smile?

“I did like them,” Mike said slowly, “Did you make them?” Brody laughed and wiped a tear from his eye.

“No no. I’m not nearly skillful enough to make them this good. This is the handiwork of my wife. Jen!” He called towards a group of women near the middle of the room. One of them looked up, smiled, and waved. Brody waved back and blew a kiss. Several people jokingly dodged it, some over exaggerating it. The whole room laughed as Jen dodged it too, laughing all the while. Brody laughed as well, Mike just stood to the side and watched the exchange. It was clear that it was some sort of an inside joke, yes he remembered. Brody and Jennifer had been dating since high school and had always had a joke with blowing kisses to each other. Mike watched as Brody walked over and recounted some high school memory they had all shared. Mike just stood by and watched as they all laughed together. Suddenly there was a shout from the other room where Mike was sitting. Hanna ran out red-faced and angry looking. She turned and yelled at the drunk guy that Mike had...interacted with earlier.

“DON’T YOU TOUCH ME!” She shouted at him. He stumbled out and tried to hold her hand. “But babe you never do anything with me.” He protested. Some of the booze had worn off but he was still a little drunk. Hanna jerked her hand away as slapped him. The guy reeled and raised his hand. Before Mike knew what he was doing, he ran forwards and caught the guy’s arm on the downstroke. The guy froze in shock, then his eyes narrowed as he realized who had stopped his arm. He tried to punch Mike with his other hand but Mike stopped it as well. The guy strained against Mike’s grip and almost broke it. Mike quickly let go and spun around behind him, putting him in a headlock. Mike used his other hand to lock it in place and grunted, “Say you’re a douchebag.”

“W-What?” The guy strained to get out of the headlock but Mike had his arm tight around his neck.

“I told you to call yourself a douchebag. It’s not like I’m asking you to lie or anything. Just say that you’re a douchebag.” The people around him snickered.

“He’s not wrong Ned. Just say it.” Someone called. Other people started to jeer at him for trying to hit Hanna. She just stood to the side and watched as Ned tried to push Mike over. Brody looked like he wanted to stop the fight, but didn’t know how to.

“I-I’m a douchebag.” He whispered hoarsely. “Louder.” Mike said and tightened his grip. “I’m a douchebag.” His voice cracked on the last word. “Swear you won’t ever go near Hanna again.”

“I-I swear.” He almost seemed like he was going to cry. Mike released him and he grabbed his neck breathing deeply. He stood up and turned towards Mike.

“What the hell is wrong with you! That’s assault and I can sue you! There’s plenty of witnesses here…” he turned to his former classmates around him. They all took a step away from him, Brody walked over to him and said quietly. “I didn’t see anything other than someone try to assault a good friend of mine.” Ned turned and smirked at Mike, who in turn glared at Brody. “I think you should leave before you put my friend Hanna in danger.” Brody finished. Ned looked over at him in shock. Brody tightened his grip and Ned winced.

“As I said, I didn’t see anything other than Ned try to assault my good friend Hanna.” Ned looked around at the other people but they offered no support.

“Fine, just...whatever.” Brody pushed him towards the front door and opened it for him.

“Get out.” Ned walked down the steps and turned to shout something, but Brody shut the door before he could yell it. There was silence for a few seconds, then Hanna turned to Mike. She opened her mouth to say something but just started to sob. Mike wanted to step forward and hold her, to comfort her, but he didn’t know how she would take it. He just stood helplessly as some of her friends came by and escorted her away. There was another moments pause, then everybody started to cheer.


	28. Chapter 28

Mike walked out of Brody’s house at 11:30, he was exhausted. After the incident, several people had started talking to him and Mike found that a lot of his former classmates were...actually quite fun to be around. One of them, Mike had discovered, had entered the entertainment programming industry. Mike had jokingly hinted about being available to test their video games, the man had surprisingly agreed. They had talked for a good portion of the night about video games, programming, and video game programming. Mike had never leaned much towards entertainment programming, but loved to play them. Mike found himself smiling as he walked down to his apartment building. He’d have to bury and change into more comfortable clothes for his shift. Nobody had asked where he worked, which was fine with him. Freddy Fazbears wasn’t the most prestigious occupation. He hadn’t seen Hanna much during the party except for when he was in the room and during the fight. He assumed that she had left the party early due to that disgusting creep. Mike clenched his fists at the thought of what that pervert might have done, or tried to do. He didn’t get along with her in the slightest, not after they broke up. But anyone trying to harm someone he knew, or anybody in general, absolutely infuriated Mike. People who hurt others simply because of anger, disgusted Mike.

_ Hypocrite. _

Mike rubbed his eyes, he had a headache. He stumbled a little bit caught himself. He shook off his lightheadedness and walked into the apartment building. 

Ten minutes later, Mike slid his keycard over the scanner on the front doors to Freddys. The lock beeped and he pushed the doors open. The animatronics were all still on the stage, Mike had one chance and wasn’t willing to waste it. He ran over to Bonnie and hurriedly unlatched the clamps on the head. He lifted it off and quickly disconnected the chip to the skull. Mike sat back and waited a moment, then reconnected it to the robot. He stood as it reset and reconnected its programming to the robot. Just a few minutes later, the lights turned off and the building went dark. Mike waited a few seconds then spoke, “Hello?” There was a creak from in front of him and he took a step backwards, off the stage. Mike fell backwards, wheeling his arms and shouting. Suddenly a metal hand clamped around his arm and pulled him back forwards. Mike stabilized himself then turned on his flashlight. Bonnie was there in front of him, holding his arm. He quickly let go and stepped backwards, the robot looked down and seemed ashamed. Why was it...oh. Mike just barely remembered that the last time he had seen the thing, it was trying to kill him. Mike smiled and said, “So are you ready to help out this time?” The robot hesitated, then nodded. Mike began to explain what it had to do. 

A few minutes later, Mike had explained the whole deal to the bunny. What he had to do was use the programming program that Mike had installed on the chip to change the chips code. The reason that Mike couldn’t do it was because he would have to delete both the regeneration code and the undercode regeneration at the same time. They wouldn’t be able to rebuild each other’s code fast enough and so would fail. Mike explained what he had to do in technical terms, the robot seemed surprised that Mike knew so much about how they worked and functioned.

“Ready?” Mike asked. The bunny nodded and seemed to unfocus for a second before looking down at Mike. He nodded and Mike felt a thrill, it had worked...hopefully.

“Now we just need to wait for the absence of the code to kick in. You should be able to ignore the buzzing now.” The bunny nodded then jerked. He stared straight ahead and twitched slightly. Mike moved to put a table between him and the possible killer, probably not killer robot. He didn’t move for a few moments, then seemed to come to its senses. He looked around startled, then turned to Mike. It opened its mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

“Thank you.” A male voice came from the animatronics face. Mike’s eyes widened, did he speak?

“What? Can...can you talk? Why didn’t you talk before?” Mike asked stunned. The robot seemed surprised as well, “I-I can speak. I remember being able to do this. To relay my thoughts in my own way. I had forgotten…” Bonnie trailed off and looked up at Mike.

“You...you saved me. You can save the others. You  _ can _ save the others.” Mike was surprised at how realistic the voice synthesizer sounded. But it wasn't really electronics anymore, now a human soul controlled it. Mike smiled, something he was more used to doing.

“Welcome to Freddys.”

Mike walked over to the other animatronics and studied them, “I don’t want to be doing this all night so let’s do the last three all at once eh?” He asked Bonnie.

“Might as well, it might go easier this time now that you have another voice of reason with you.” Bonnie walked over to Mike, he would have to get used to how tall the freaking thing was. Mike looked up at the animatronic, “Another voice of reason? I am  _ the _ voice of reason. No mortal can resist my reasonusness...reasonity? Resonance? Whatever.” Mike scowled and turned to Chica, “Help me get her head off.” When Bonnie didn’t come help he turned to look at him, “Well?” Bonnie shook his head, “Why not?” Mike asked confused.

“Imagine removing a human's head with your bare hands.” He said and turned away. Mike rolled his eyes.

“You have a point there, but I’m not giving it to you, it’s mine.” Bonnie swiveled his head around and raised an eyebrow. Mike reached up and released the clamps holding the chickens head on. He lifted it and set it on the ground next to him, then attached the chip to her endoskeleton skull. It moved for a second, checking joints to make sure that they were functional, then it looked towards Mike. It raised an eyebrow, then looked at Bonnie. It suddenly seemed panicked, Mike raised his hands in a submissive gesture.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’ve disabled the-oh there she goes.” Typically, Chica tried to speed walk away from Mike, headed towards the kitchen. He turned to Bonnie and gestured towards Chica.

“Chica. Come back please.” Bonnie called to it. Chica froze and turned, it stared at Bonnie and then Mike.

“Yea see, Bonnie is fixed now. The buzzing is gone for him, forever. Now I can make you the same way, I just need you to cooperate.” Chica seemed indecisive, it looked towards the kitchen, then at Bonnie. Then Mike saw something change in her, a determination that was hiding under all the fear and distrust. Something told Mike that it had just surfaced above and was ready to lead her into freedom. Mike smiled and beckoned it forwards.

Him and Bonnie went through the whole process with the others. Mike replaced the chips in all the others and watched them reboot. Well, watched Foxy and Chica reboot. Chica seemed to calm down the more she saw how in control Bonnie was. Foxy fortunately remembered Mike and was already willing to cut off the buzzing’s control over them. Mike did have to explain what had happened after Foxy had shut down after he had accidentally removed his chip. Foxy had just remained inanimate after the chip was removed, even during the night. Chica had finally calmed down enough to try and delete the programming. Mike could only hope that the undercode was the same for each one. If not, things were going to get ugly. But the process went smoothly, Chica deleted the regeneration code, she went through a reset and regained her freedom.

“Bonnie?” She said as she came out of her reset sequence. She obviously had a female voice that had some sort of faint undefinable accent that Mike couldn’t put a pin on. Bonnie smiled, “Chica, you’re back.”

“I guess I am.” She said awkwardly. There was a pause and suddenly they embraced. Foxy protested over his exclusion from the hug. The others laughed and pulled him in. He nearly fell over due to his missing foot but the other held him up. Mike stood back as the two conversed and rejoiced over their freedom. He walked over and inspected Freddy, for some reason he had yet to wake up or respond to anything he had said to him earlier. He had remained as inanimate as a statue. Mike waved a hand in front of his visuals but got no response. The rest of the animatronics all joined Mike and watched Freddy.

“Why isn’t he moving?” Foxy asked. Mike shrugged, “I have no clue. It might be a problem with the code, he  _ is _ a newer model.” Mike held out his hands helplessly.

“I’ll have to take a look at the code insid-“ Freddy slightly twitched. Mike leaned back and looked up at Freddy’s head. He made no other movement, Mike hesitantly waved his hand in front of its face. It’s eyes jerkily followed his movement.

“Hmm, it seems that he’s in some sort of limited movement state. He’s having trouble reconnecting to his servos. The only reason that that could happen is if the buzzing had pushed him out of control for so long that…” 

“What?” Chica asked. Mike sighed,

“Well...he’s forgotten how to move his body.”


	29. Chapter 29

“Forgotten?” Chica squeaked. “How could he forget? We don’t ever forget things” 

“Well not forgotten in the sense that he doesn’t remember. But forgotten in the sense that he hasn’t moved on his own in so long that he has to get reacquainted with his body again. Like if you’d been moved to a different exosuit for a long time and then moved back to your own. You’d have to get used to moving a certain way again.” Mike explained as he checked other parts of Freddy’s body. He hadn’t responded to his explanation or anything. But only time would tell if he had heard Mike. There were two options, both of them unpleasant.

Option one was to just leave Freddy be and see if he had deleted the undercode. If he had then Mike could help him on the long road to regaining knowledge of how to move his limbs. If he hadn’t heard him, well then he would be on the attack, and Mike would have to disable him again. And this time, Mike wasn’t so sure that he’d survive this time.

Option two was to remove the chip from Freddy. Follow the strange man's pleadings and burn the chip. Condemn Freddy’s soul to the afterlife, rob him of his chance at a new life. Kill him. Mike didn’t want to do that. But it was a safer option than allowing the chance for Freddy to become a murderer. Was a no life better than the life of a killer? Mike knew firsthand that the life of a killer was terrible. But was it worse than no life?

Mike explained the two options with the other animatronics. They looked nervous and apprehensive. Foxy interrupted Mike, “Why can’t we let him decide?” He said angrily gesturing to Freddy with his hook. He was the only one who was angry about the whole thing. Although Mike had no idea why he would be angry.

“It’s Freddy’s life not yours! Why can’t we just ask him?” Mike looked over at Freddy and then back at Foxy.

“Why don’t  _ you  _ ask him?” Mike asked sarcastically. Foxy looked up at Freddy then seemed to deflate. He sighed and put his hand on his metal leg.

“I’m sorry, I-I just feel like we should allow each other to make their decisions now since...well now that we finally have a chance to do it.” Mike nodded, “Of course but then what can we do if they can’t decide?” Foxy just shook his head and tried to stand. He teetered and almost went down, but he caught himself on a table just in time.

“When are you going to get my foot fixed eh? I’m rather attached to it ya know.”

“Not anymore.” Bonnie murmured under his breath. Chica and Mike laughed while Foxy glared at him.

“I’d trample ye where ye stand if I wasn’t ta fox I was long ago.” Foxy growled in his pirate accent. Bonnie and Chica only laughed louder. Mike shook his head and looked up at Freddy.

“Listen, I don’t know if you can hear me but I need you to try and respond to me as best you can. If you want me to burn your chip and free your soul then just make any movement that you can.” Freddy didn’t move.

“If you want me to leave you risk the buzzing not being gone then- oh what am I saying? If you can hear me then you’ve most likely already gotten it already. If you heard my instructions from before then make any movement that you can.” Freddy’s eyes twitched and an arm swung forwards at the shoulder slightly.

“So do you want me to leave you and try to teach you to move again?” Freddy’s eye moved up, then a second later moved down. Then back up until it was clear that he was doing his best to nod with his eyes. Mike smiled, ”Then let’s get started.”

Freddy watched the others come alive and rejoice. He had already deleted the code, he sensed that control over him was released and the cockpit empty. He took control of himself again but found that he didn’t understand the controls anymore. He tried to move his eyes but they didn’t respond, how exactly did he move them again? He watched the others debate on what to do with him. Freddy wanted so desperately to yell that he wanted to live, he didn’t want his chip burned or whatever the night guard had said. At least when the guard had asked him to move if he wanted his chip burned, he managed to not move an inch. When the guard asked if he wanted to live and try to regain control over his body, Freddy tried to wave his hand and nod but only managed a little twitch. He felt so useless, completely weak. He was the only one to fully succumb to the buzzing. He barely managed to sort of nod with his eyes. He was an absolute failure.


	30. Chapter 30

Mike stared at the envelope in his hands. He was in shock, the day had finally come. This was it, this was the turning point in his life. This was where his life finally was set straight on the train tracks of life. Mike slowly and carefully ripped open the seal on the white paper addressed to Mikeal P. Schmidt, from Fazbear Entertainment. Mike pulled out a check for three hundred and fifteen dollars. $7.25 an hour, 6 hours, seven days. Mike did the math and was giddy to find the exact amount on his check. He held up to his face and smelled it. He laughed aloud and almost danced. His landlord was still standing in front of him and was staring at him confusedly.

“You gonna start payin’ ya rent now?” He drawled as Mike spun around. He stopped dancing and glared at the short guy in front of him. “No.” Mike said and slammed the door. He inspected his check even more, not to ensure its validity, but just to take in the fact that he had money now.  _ He had money now!  _ Mike grabbed his black jacket and went out the door with his check in pocket.

Mike walked down the street practically exploding with happiness. He knew that he was probably a bad person for being so happy over money, but screw it! He was a bad person! Mike was really tempted to skip but there were lots of people around, and he needed to keep up his reputation as a pessimistic asshole. Mike turned the corner and his knees went weak. The bank was just down the street, Mike looked across the street still expecting to see Boss hiding in the bushes. 

“Wait what was that?” Mike thought, he could swear he saw movement in the bushes. He crosses the street quickly and as he got closer, it was clear that they were empty. Mike shook his head and crossed again, he was going to get in trouble again if he didn’t stop acting so strange. Mike pushed the doors open and walked in the bank.

The teller at the counter smiled as he approached. “Hi how can I help you today?” He was a polite looking old man who still had a few hairs yet to turn grey. Mike smiled reflexively and held up his check, “Got one of these to cash.”

“You have your bank account information?” The man asked, Mike really like this guy. He looked over and almost fell over when he saw a bullet hole in the glass window. Mike blinked and it was gone. There was a security guard walking behind the glass, Mike blinker again but he didn’t disappear. He was real unfortunately, and he nodded at Mike as he made his rounds.

“I don’t have an account.” Mike said suddenly. The man nodded and pulled out a paper from a drawer in his desk.

“Well then you’ll want to fill this out and I’ll need five dollars for opening the account.” Mike nodded and took the paper over to a desk by the wall with pens. He filled out the paper and signed it. Mike checked his wallet and went even paler than he already was. He only had three dollars, he doubted that the bank would allow him to use some of the money from his check since it technically wasn’t his yet. He walked up to the counter and slid over the paper.

“Listen I’m so sorry but I don’t have five dollars on me. Is it possible for me to use some of the money on my check to pay for it?” The man shook his head and looked sincerely apologetic. “No sir I’m sorry. We can’t open an account if you don’t already have the five dollars with you. But you can leave the account application paper here and come back later with more money.” Mike stared down at his feet.

“This is all I have sir.” He said quietly. The man didn’t look surprised or shocked. He just looked sad, “I’m sorry. I truly am.” The teller said. He reached for something in a drawer and pulled it out. It was a worn leather wallet, a faded line right where the man held it to open it. He pulled out two one dollar bills and set them on the counter. Mike looked up in shock, part of him was angry that the man though he needed help. That part was immediately crushed by the rational part of Mike that knew that he needed it. Mike knew this kind of person, if they knew you needed help they would offer anything and everything they had to help you. Mike knew this kind of person because he used to be that kind of person. He would always try to help people the best he could. Even if they didn’t deserve it, he was always that way until that day. That day he saw darkness and death. That day so long ago, nearly 12 years. Mike almost collapsed, he started to cry. A single tear traveling down his face until he wiped it away. Mike set the last of his money, three worn and nearly torn dollar bills, down next to the two new ones. The man smiled and slid them back towards Mike.

“Your account is ready, I just need to ask you a few questions.” Mike nodded and smiled back, a real smile.

Later with a much fuller bank account and a debit card in his wallet, Mike strolled out of the bank and breathed in the morning air. He’d have to go shopping, groceries first obviously. Then maybe some comfort items. Having money, Mike thought, is something I need to experience more often. He walked through the doors to the Ralph’s not too far from Freddy’s. The aisles seemed to offer so much more now that Mike could afford it. He picked out some sandwich essentials, chicken pot pie, ramen noodles, and a box of instant pancakes along with some syrup. Mike carted his items to the self checkout lane and started scanning his items.

“What a day.” He mumbled to himself smiling. He wondered what the animatronics did when it was day, sleep? Mike thought it was sort of like a sleep stasis that they stayed in during the day. He’d have to ask when he went there during the night shift. Mike put his groceries in a bag and started walking to his apartment. He needed to work out a rehabilitation plan for Freddy. There was a long night ahead of him.

Mike took an old notepad and inch long pencil from the old desk in his apartment and began to write. He would need to work on getting certain systems to work first. Freddy would most likely want to try walking first but it would be better to work on the arms and hands. Arms and hands would be more difficult and would take longer but would also provide a better long term benefit. If he could get Freddy’s arms working then he could start performing soon. The restaurant opened in less than a week, it wasn’t a huge deal if he couldn’t get Freddy walking by then but he needed his arms. Mike wrote out ‘arms and hands’ on the top of the notepad. Then wrote down a couple exercises for Freddy to complete. He looked at the clock and yawned, 7:26. Mike leaned forwards and down at the notepad he hadn’t ever felt this tired before. The result of staying up late for the past week was starting to catch up with him. Mike yawned again and rested his head on the desk. In seconds he was asleep. 

Mike awoke in a dark building, he sat up quickly and looked around. There was a table in the corner and several plushies of the animatronics on a rack on the wall. A purple and blue box was in the corner and had several pictures that looked to be drawn by children taped to the wall. Mike stood and walked over to the box, there was faint music nearby coming from a small speaker near the box. Mike reached out and touched the lid, then lifted it slowly. Inside was a bundle of black and white striped fabric and a mask. The mask was simple and white with purple tears streaming down the face. Mike realized a second later that it was a puppet. There were strings connected to it that led out of the box and into the ceiling. Mike guessed that it was remote controlled from the ceiling and made to look like it stood up in the box. The only part that confused Mike was the small speaker. It was too quiet and too soothing to be playing for children nearby. The only reason 

Mike could come up with was that it was for the puppet. But why would the puppet need music? Mike picked it up and examined it, but when he picked it up, a wire that was hidden beneath it was disconnected. The speaker suddenly stopped playing and there was only a faint crackling coming from the speaker. There was a creak from behind him and he turned around. The puppet was rising from the box looking straight at the speaker in his hand. Mike stumbled back but ran into the table. The puppet stared straight at the speaker in his hand. Then, it reached into the space where the speaker was and pulled out a small ornate music box. It shook it and held it up to its face. Then it lowered it and slowly turned its head towards Mike. Mike turned to run but tripped over a table leg. He crashed onto the floor and watched as the crying puppet rose out of the box and floated towards him. Mike then realized its strings were limp and dragging on the floor. Nothing was holding it up.

“It’s just a dream, it’s just a dream.” Mike whispered to himself. He scrambled up off the floor and ran away. It was dark and he could make out much details but he was in a large room with several arcade machines and a small statue of a rotund kid holding balloons. Mike ran down a hallway with a door at the end labeled, Parts and Services. He turned and saw what seemed to be an office at the end. Mike ran for it and slid under the table. He looked down the hall and watched as the puppet slowly glided down the hallway. It seemed to know exactly where he was it reached out and pointed towards him. Mike stood up and grabbed a flashlight he saw on the table. He pointed it at the creepy puppet and flashed the light as fast as he could. The puppet didn’t even slow, it stood over the table and looked down at Mike. Mike didn’t move, he couldn’t move. The puppet raised a hand and several strings lowered down and wrapped around Mike’s limbs. The puppet raised a finger and lifted Mike’s arm. It was solid brown and plastic looking. Mike’s head went limp and he looked down at his body. It was brown and plastic as well. He had a microphone in his hand and a black bow-tie. The puppet lowered its face until it was right in front of Mike. And in the polished wood, Mike’s face was reflected. A strange cartoonized version of Freddy’s face. Mike tried to scream, but the puppet held a finger to his mouth and silenced him. Everything faded away as Mike struggled to move his body and run.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Honestly, I didn’t even understand the saying ‘running late’ until I wrote it out just now.)

Mike jerked awake with the notepad stuck to his face. It was damp with sweat and the paper that Mike had written on earlier was ripped and ruined, not to mention hanging from his cheek. He growled and pulled it off, the paper was useless now, as was the notepad. Mike slid it into the trash bin next to his desk and sat back in his seat. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at his clock. It was 1:19...AM, Mike leapt from his seat dashed to grab his hat and jacket, and remembered his keycard just in time. He sprinted out the door and flew down the stairs three at a time. He was literally, running late.

Mike ran across the parking lot, past the poster on the lamppost declaring the date of the grand reopening of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzaria, and slammed his keycard against the scanner. Nothing happened, Mike began to panic as he realized that the scanner didn’t have any power after the building shut down. The doors were going to remain locked until the building got power again. Mike looked at the alleyway between the next building and the pizzaria. It was pretty small...small enough.

Mike braced his back against the wall of the pizzeria and walked up the wall a little more. He was about halfway up the wall already. He braced his hands and legs next and pushed scooting his back farther up. He repeated the process, scraping his hands fairly bad in the process. It hurt, but it was the only way in. Wait… Mike realized something. The animatronics were in there, he could get them to redirect power to the building. But no, they lacked the expertise. And he hadn’t ever done this before, it was sort of fun in the fashion that it was almost work so it was kinda not fun, but it was also fun. Mike grabbed the lip of the building and hoisted himself up. He walked around the roof until he found the vent system. He unscrewed it with a coin he found and crawled in.

Mike kept bumping his head on the turns because of the lack of light. Every time he did he cursed and he was starting to run out of curses. He finally heard talking down a vent so he followed it until he reached the source. Below him, he saw the animatronics with Freddy standing by a table. Mike watched in amazement as Freddy lifted an arm shakily and pointed at a party hat they had set on a table far away. Freddy concentrated and his arm steadied and held still. The others cheered and congratulated him. Freddy smiled and laughed with them. Mike just watched, the animatronics didn’t need him. Who was Mike kidding when he thought that they would need his help to live? Nobody that’s who. Mike sighed and moved to turn around, unfortunately gravity had other ideas. The vent started to buckle under Mike’s weight. He quickly moved over the vent cover and knocked it down. He fell through and landed right next to Foxy, who would’ve taken Mike’s head off if he had been standing up. Mike remained crouching where he landed as the rusty fox’s hook swung a foot above his head. Mike looked up at Foxy and grinned.

“Hi.”

“So why did you decide to fall out of the roof?” Chica asked again. Mike rolled his eyes and explained again. “I was locked out of the building and the only way in was through the vent system. I crawled through and the vent started to collapse beneath me so I jumped out.” Chica looked worried as she looked up at the hole in the ceiling where the vent cover was. Bonnie had gone to retrieve a ladder from the storage closet so that Mike could replace it. Freddy hadn’t seemed surprised at his exciting entrance, the robot had just kept his face completely poker-faced. Although that might be because he hadn’t gotten complete control over his face. While Mike was sleeping, Freddy had been practicing moving. The other animatronics eventually came to encourage and help Freddy. Bonnie returned and helped set up challenges for him to do and gradually helped him be able to walk and sit down. It wasn’t exactly what Mike had in mind, but it was definitely an improvement and he wasn’t going to complain about it. Mike had no plan, or his plan was just disintegrated due to his own sweat and lack of sleep. Mike just watched as they completed their practice with Freddy until he managed to move at a full run. It was slightly unsettling, this enormous bear with arms straight down at his sides, face completely blank, running quick enough to be just short of a sprint. It would be comical if Mike wasn’t remembering the last time Freddy was running. Running to catch Mike, he kept telling himself that Freddy wasn’t himself but it still brought chills down his spine. Mike heard a clatter down the hallway to the office. They all turned to stare down the hall and Mike couldn’t resist.

“The place must have ghosts in it.” Mike said completely straight faced. He looked over at the others and Mike swore it looks could kill, he’d be dead five times already...wait five. Mike blinked and counted again. Four animatronics glaring at him, why did he count five? Mike shook his head, smiled, then shrugged.

“I’m such a rascal. What will you guys ever do with me?” Freddy lifted an arm and hit it on his knee joint. Everybody looked at him confusedly, Freddy just repeated the action. Mike cocked his head as a phrase came to mind, “It’s...a knee slapper?” Mike asked hesitantly. Freddy pointed to him and jerkily nodded. Mike snickered and raised his hand for a high five, “Nice.” Freddy high fived him hard and Mike rubbed his hand.

“Dang that hurt.”

“Are just going to ignore the noise we heard?” Bonnie asked quickly, he seemed anxious and nervous.

“Yup.” Mike said, he sat back and closed his eyes. Chica sighed and gestured for Bonnie to follow her. He stood up and Freddy moved to stand as well. Mike cracked an eye and saw that the others were leaving, he groaned and stood up. Foxy remained where he was and just turned his chair to watch. The quintuple walked down the hall cautiously. Bonnie watched behind them, Chica kept her eyes ahead, Freddy was keeping an eye on the storage closet, Mike stared at the ceiling for absolutely no reason other than to count how many panels were there. Chica reaches the storage closet and slowly opened it. They peeked inside and Chica gasped. There was cleaning fluid spilled all over the floor, covering it in a lemon smelling yellow fluid. Mike sniffed and almost retched, “Ugh I hate the smell of lemon. And what else is that?” Bonnie looked at him curiously, “Just the smell?” Mike nodded and crossed his chest to ward off any lemon demons just in case.

“I don’t have anything against the smell of lemon.” Chica piped up.

“You don’t have a nose, you can’t smell.” Mike reminded her.

“I can still like the smell of lemon!” Chica said defensively. Mike shook his head and Bonnie did as well.

“That’s like a blind person complimenting a painting. It just doesn’t make any sense.” Chica turned away from them and started to pout. Mike rolled his eyes and grabbed a mop.

“Help me out, grab a towel or something” Mike said and started to soak up the cleaning fluid.

Half and hour later, with absolutely no help from the animatronics due to the risk of them getting the cleaner in their circuits, Mike finished mopping up the cleaner. He wiped his brow and sighed, he moved to open the door but found that it was blocked. Mike pushed on it and sighed.

“That’s not funny guys, open the door.” Mike shouted, no response. He banged on it a few times then looked up at the vent. He sighed but before he started climbing up to it, the door opened. Mike turned but didn’t see anybody there. He walked out and looked down the hall, nobody was there. Mike walked into the party room and found the animatronics all sitting together at a table talking.

“Alright,” Mike said and cracked his knuckles, “Who dunnit?” The animatronics looked up confused.

“Who did what?” Foxy asked. Mike pulled out a flathead screwdriver from his pocket, and pointed it threateningly at them.

“First one to talk doesn’t get their head joints disabled.” Bonnie sat up straight.

“Wait that’s not fair!” He said and looked around at his friends. “Nobody was there!” Mike paused and looked at Bonnie. He looked at all the others and realized that Freddy was raising his hand. He paused and raised an eyebrow. Freddy pointed to himself and then a party hat.

“You did while wearing a party hat?” Mike asked confused. Freddy shook his head and pointed to Chica, then back at himself. Mike shook his head, “Uhhh...you and Chica…” Freddy shook his head again before Mike could finish. He looked around and started grabbing random items, a balloon, a kids chair, Chica, and set them on a yellow tablecloth. Minus Chica of course, he just gently nudged her and sat her on a chair next to the table. Freddy pointed to each item in turn, then looked at Mike.

“Oh they’re all yellow!” Bonnie said excitedly. Freddy pointed to Bonnie and nodded. Then he pointed to the items, and then himself. Mike cocked his head, “I’ve got it!” They all turned to Mike and he raised his hands dramatically.

“Freddy put on a party hat, tied a balloon to a chair and asked Chica to block the door with it!” He leaned back in his chair and smirked.

“Yahtzee.”


	32. Chapter 32

Freddy facepalmed, but missed his face when he did. He tried again and nailed it.

“What?” Mike asked. Everyone was giving him that look. The one that signified that you did something stupid.

“A yellow Freddy.” Chica said. “Whatever was blocking that door was a yellow Freddy.” Freddy nodded and then made a poof gesture.

“He vanished?” Mike asked. Bonnie’s jaw dropped, “How did you get that and not ‘yellow Freddy’?” Mike shrugged and grinned. Freddy nodded and pointed to Mike.

“So we’re dealing with a ghost Freddy eh? Nothing I can’t handle, I wonder if Chase has heard anything about a ghost Freddy?” Mike thought aloud.

“Who’s Chase?” Foxy asked. Mike stared at him, “Do you remember the guy who accompanied me during my first week? The guy who was staying in the office on the first night?” Freddy nodded. “Right.” Mike said.

“Well he’s my boss, and the manager of this place. If anybody knows anything about any part of this place, it’s him.” Mike checked the clock, 5:47 AM.

“Alright, fortunately the clock out here isn’t broken and it’s almost time to go. So I’m gonna leave and check in with Chase to see if he knows anything alright?” Mike turned to walk to the doors then remembered the doors were still shut down. He turned back around, “Right, so I just decided I’m going to stay for longer.” Freddy stopped waving and Bonnie looked…was that disappointment? Mike rubbed his hands together and looked around.

“So what do you guys have to do around here?” He asked. They all looked at each other and Freddy shrugged.

“Nothing really.” Foxy said, he looked tired strangely. Mike would have to check up on him when he had the tools. He sat in a chair and sighed, this was going to be a long 13 minutes.

Mike felt like he was dying, everything was boredom, and boredom was pain. He looked up at the clock, 5:49. He pounded his head onto the table and groaned. “BOREDOM IS JUST DYING WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE!” He screamed. The animatronics looked seriously worried.

“That doesn’t make any-“ Mike snapped his head up to stare at Chica. She squeaked and shut her mouth. Mike glared for a second before looking back up at the clock, 5:50. This was going to be a long 10 minutes.

Mike huddled in a ball in the corner. The animatronics were standing all around him wondering if he was alright. They were silently urging one another to go poke him and see if he was still alive. Foxy then made a sound like he was clearing his throat, because he obviously didn’t have a throat.

“Mike...Uh...are you alright?” Mike nodded slowly.

“I’m timestreaming.” He said. “If I made myself aerodynamic, then time will slip by faster around me.” Foxy looked up at the clock for a second.

“Well sorry to burst your bubble but time is still moving normally.”

“For you it is, for me it is passing like...time…but really fast.” Foxy nodded slowly, “Riiighhht.” He said and backed away.

“I’m gonna go back to pirates cove before I catch whatever he has.” He gestured in Mike’s general direction. He started hobbling away, using the chairs and tables to support himself. Mike suddenly looked up at the clock, 5:57. He groaned and put his head back down. This was going to be a lllllloooonnnngggggg three minutes.

Three minutes later, the bells rang for the end of the night shift. The animatronics all retired to their stages and Mike jumped up to leave. He swiped his keycard over his scanner and turned to say goodbye. He saw for a split second, a limp figure of Freddy, it clearly used to be bright yellow but age and neglect turned it a pale yellow with most of the paint scratched away. Mike blinked and the suit disappeared. So there is our ghostly friend, Mike thought. He saluted where it was a second ago and turned to leave.

“Where have I seen that thing before?” Mike said to himself.


	33. Chapter 33

Mike stood by the pay telephone glaring at everybody who walked near him. The phone rang for a few moments then a cheery pre-recorded message answered.

“Hello, you have reached Fazbear Entertainment! We hope you are having an amazing day and are hungry for some of our fresh made and completely nutritious pizza! To leave a kind suggestion for us to read and improve upon, please press 1. To reach a specific location, press 2.” Mike pressed 2.

“Please enter your area code, then press pound.” Mike did so.

“Please hold while we connect you to the manager.” Mike stood and waited patiently. He had a free call because some moron left a bunch of change on top of the telephone.

“Hello? You’ve reached the manager of your local Freddy Fazbear’s diner, what can I get for you?” The voice of Chase came over the speaker. Mike paused and said, “Yea can I get a family pack of 6 FazBurgers, 3 large FazFries, and one vanilla FazFreeze with caramel drizzled on top? Do you deliver too? Because you might want to wait to make it cause I can’t pick it up for an hour or so. And that’ll be all.” There was silence for a moment, then Chase spoke wearily.

“You know Mike, you could’ve just asked me for my number.” Mike frowned, “How’d you know it was me?”

“Your accent.” Chase said. Mike glared down at the telephone, then raised it up to his ear again.

“I don’t have an accent.” He said.

“You do.” Chase replied.

“What kind of accent?” Mike asked, he didn’t have an accent...did he?

“A My-kael Schmidt accent.” Chase said purposely pronouncing it wrong. Mike glared at the telephone.

“I do  _ not _ have an accent.” He growled.

“What do you need Mikeal?” Chase asked wearily. 

“I don’t.”

“MIKE!”

“Okay okay jeez. I just wanted to ask if there were any stories about a ghost Freddy or something at the pizzeria.” There was a pause.

“You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking.” Chase said, he seemed stressed suddenly.

“No I’m se-“

“There are no spiritual beings at this pizzeria or any other!” Chase sounded angry. Mike was puzzled, what would make him act this way?

“Goodbye Mike!” He shouted and hung up. Mike stared at the telephone in his hand for a second before shaking his head. What had gotten into that guy, Mike thought. Did something happen? Was there someone in the room with him and he couldn’t talk about it with him? There was no point in asking questions, he had to find the answers himself. Mike looked over at the Sportsman’s Goods store across the street and grinned. He had a new toy to buy.

Mike walked into the auto shop and waved to Santiago who sat at the front desk. He smiled widely and waved back, “Morning sir! How can we help you?” He asked brightly.

“Where’s your auntie?” Mike asked. She wasn’t anywhere in sight and he didn’t hear any noises coming from the workshop.

“Out!” The small kid said. Mike frowned and the kid started to look uneasy, was he really that scary?

“Where could I find out?” Mike asked and leaned forwards in the counter. Santiago leaned back and gulped, “I don’t know...she just leaves sometimes. She’s never been longer than an hour. She knows I can handle the shop while she’s gone.” Mike nodded slowly.

“When will she be back?” Mike asked. Santiago shrugged, “She left a while ago so maybe soon, maybe later.”

Mike sighed and sat in a nearby chair. He set his plastic shopping bag down next to him and sat, and sat, and sat, and sat. For five minutes Mike sat there and suffered until Esmerelda finally walked. She waved to Mike and set her purse down behind the counter.

“What’s u-“ she started before Mike interrupted her.

“I fixed them.” Esmerelda furrowed her brow, “Fixed what?” She asked.

“The animatronics. The ones from Freddy’s.” Mike smiled.

“They don’t kill anymore.”

“So let me get this straight. The chips we removed that caused them to go nuts and attack anybody in the building at night, you discovered a secret message on them that told you to burn them to release the souls inside. Naturally you ignored its advice and decided to just go through the code like a sane person. Discovered a...dark code…”

“Undercode.” Mike interrupted.

“Right, then you went through this whole process of deleting it, almost bringing them back to the same state that they were before, and now Freddy needs physical therapy.” Mike nodded enthusiastically. Esmerelda shook her head, “Well it makes more sense than the possessed robots.” Mike nodded, it really did.

“So what do we do know?”

“Well the animatronics are all safe for now, we need to help Freddy start to move around again, and there’s a demon ghost bear.” Esmerelda blinked, “What?”

“Oh I forgot. Apparently there’s a ghost Freddy haunting the pizzeria. He’s yellow and very shy, and somewhat familiar.” A chill went down Mike’s spine when he spoke. It was like someone was ever so gently trailing an icicle down his back. He shivered and looked up at her. She was looking concerned, “You’re not about to pass out again are you.” Mike made a face at her and folded his arms.

“I’d take you there and show you but you aren’t allowed in anymore until the place opens in just a few days.” Mike looked down at an imaginary watch, then up at the clock. He shook his wrist and slapped it.

“My watch is off.” He said and brought his bare wrist up to his face and examined the apparently invisible watch. Esmerelda stared at him in utter confusion, “What are you talking about?” Mike shushed her and listened to his wrist. He looked back up at the clock and then down at his wrist. He peered closer at it then jumped as the door opened. Santiago walked in, saw Mike’s glare, then walked right back out. Esmerelda rolled her eyes and called Santiago back in. He walked in carefully and went straight to Esmerelda. He whispered in her ear and she nodded. 

“Job calls, this one might take a while. I’ll see you later.” She said and stood to leave. Mike sighed and followed her, he just barely remembered to bring the shopping bag along. He needed to remember to stop by the Ralph’s grocery store to pick up some ammunition.


	34. Chapter 34

Mike walked across the parking lot to Freddy Fazbear’s pizzaria. He carried his duffel with his new toy and ammunition. It was $26 at Sportsman’s, but if it worked, it would be so worth it. Mike was surprised to see that Chase’s car was parked here. He walked to the doors and swiped his card, granting him access to the building. Chase was sitting at a table inside with an angry expression on his face. Mike felt a twinge of anxiety, what had he done wrong? Other than the obvious. As Mike stepped in, Chase stood up and walked towards him.

“I need to talk to you.” Mike hesitated and nodded.

“I can’t have you spreading false rumors about a ghost at Freddy’s. It will be severely detrimental to the company’s reputation and I will  _ not _ allow you to do that. Am I understood?” Chase said intensely, Mike nodded quickly. He hated being in trouble, or failing someone’s trust, not again. Chase looked up at the clock, then back at Mike, there was an awkward pause where they just sat for a second. Chase stood up, “Well I’m glad we’ve figured this out. I hope I don’t have to talk to you about this again. Tomorrow I’m going to be in a meeting about the grand reopening tomorrow so you won’t see me for a while. Goodbye Mikeal.” Chase stood and started walking towards the door, he opened it but then just stood in the doorway for a second. The building suddenly shut down as the night began. Chase leaned in towards Mike keeping the door open to prevent it from locking him in.   
“I left a paper on your desk detailing what I know about Golden Freddy. Bye Mike.” He smiled and waved pleasantly, then walked out to his car. Mike was confused, why had he acted angry until the building turned off? He walked into the office while the animatronics powered on.

_ “Golden Freddy is a story that my late brother told me. He went face to face with it during his career at a different franchise and he told terrible stories of it. It would appear and disappear without warning. It always went away when he either blinked or turned his head away. Breaking eye contact with it is usually the best policy. My brother claimed that it was possessed by the ghost of a child who died in an accident involving this particular costume. Yes it used to be a costume, wearable by anybody trained to do so, but that’s a story for another time. You may have heard of the incident, The Bite of ‘87. His frontal lobe was bitten off and he died in the hospital a few days later. He was named Golden Freddy by my brother I think. I’ve never heard this rumor from anybody else, and you just confirmed that my brother wasn’t crazy. The reason I acted strange earlier was because management has hidden microphones all over to make sure employees don’t spread “false” rumors about the company. If they find out or suspect that you might start telling people about what really goes on here at Freddy’s, they either pay you off, or make you disappear. It happened to one of the original creators of the animatronics, Henry I think his name was. He was protesting against the ethics of the company to the company council, technically he was their boss, but they had more influence over the employees and the business. Henry was just the guy who made the robots. So he disappeared, they didn’t need him. That’s all I know about Golden Freddy, good luck.” _

Mike finished reading the note and sat back. So it was a sort of ghost. Hopefully the...weapon he brought would be enough. Mike opened the cameras and had a brief moment of panic when he saw Bonnie walking down the hall, he nearly went to close the door but remembered just in time. He fought off panic as he watched the robot walk into the office. It smiled at him and Mike let out a sigh of relief. They weren’t going to try to murder him again, not that he doubted his work, he was just wary.

“You’re still here.” Bonnie said. Mike cocked an eyebrow, “Despite the rest of the world apparent primitive robotic technology and your somehow being  _ years _ ahead technology wise, you sound surprised.” Bonnie laughed and said, “Yea that William is a genius.” His smile suddenly dropped. He stared ahead for a second before refocusing on Mike, “Yea I guess we’re all surprised that we haven’t scared you off by now.” Mike snorted, “Y’all ain’t scary.” Bonnie stared him right in the eye.

“I’m serious, it takes a serious spooking to make me jump...sometimes.” Mike looked him in the eye and Bonnie rolled his eyes.

“Anyway we just wondered what we’re going to do now. I mean there isn’t much to do around here except...well nothing.” Mike nodded, he would have to fix that, but he didn’t exactly have much to do either. Mike sat back, closed his eyes, and thought. There was a disturbing lack of things to do, even though he should technically be working right now. He sat up suddenly and grinned widely. Bonnie’s ears reflexively went back, that smile never preceded anything good.

A few minutes, an explanation, and a lot of arguing and protesting later, Mike say in his office concentrated on the monitor in front of him. Bonnie was approaching from the west hall and Chica was still in the kitchen. Freddy has opted out of the game fortunately for Mike, he was still a bit unstable but was regaining control again quickly. Unfortunately something was still wrong with the voice synthesizer, it would only spout out random splurts of words. His prerecorded sayings were still usable, but they irritated Mike so he didn’t play them. Foxy was also out of the game due to his foot still being gone. Mike actually hadn’t seen it for a while now, that was moderately concerning. But he had something more preoccupying at the moment. Bonnie was trying his best to sneak down the hallway, but weighing a couple hundred pounds didn’t help him in that department. Mike casually leaned over and closed the door, Bonnie pounded on it for a second then glared at him through the door, which was remarkably less terrifying than the blank stare. Mike watched Bonnie walk away dejected and he sat back. Suddenly there was a screech and Mike nearly lept out of his skin. Chica was standing at the door and leaning against its frame. Mike groaned and glared at her, she laughed and held out a hand to lift him off of the ground. Bonnie walked through the west hallway door and grinned at him.

“Thought you didn’t spook easily.” He said. Mike flipped him off and took Chica’s hand. She lifted him up effortlessly while Bonnie looked confusedly at Mike.

“What does that mean?” He asked. Mike looked over at him in confusion, “What does what mean?” Bonnie raised his middle finger and pointed at it.

“That.” Mike snorted, then looked at him again, the look of utter confusion and innocence combined with the obscene gesture made Mike lose it. He supported himself on the desk as he laughed his head off. It was Chica’s turn to look confused, “Is it like a ‘good game’ gesture?” She asked. Mike only laughed louder and Freddy appeared around the door to see what the fuss was. He raised an eyebrow and pointed at Mike, Bonnie and Chica both shrugged as Mike slowly died down his laughter. He stood up straight and wiped his eyes.

“It means fuck you.” Mike said and almost died again.

“What does fuck you mean?” Chica asked. Mike started laughing again, Bonnie sighed in frustration.

“Ohh I’m gonna get fired for this.” Mike said through tears.

“It’s-its an insult.” Mike said hiccuping from laughing so hard. They all nodded and Bonnie quickly lowered his finger. Mike took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “Okay I’m good now.” He looked up at Bonnie. 

“Y’all ready for round two?” He said and grinned.

Mike watched Chica through the cameras, she was walking towards him down the hall, then had stopped just before the door. Bonnie was in the backroom and was staring up at the camera. Mike slid back on the chair and leaned back. This is a nice chair, he thought. He checked the camera again and saw that Chica wasn’t there, he leaned over and without looking, closed the door. Mike could faintly hear her whining and kicking the door. He watched as she dejectedly walked back to the dining room. He switched the camera to the other hall, it was empty before Bonnie turned the corner and walked into view. He started running down the hall as quickly and as silently he could but Mike closed the door long before he got there.

“I don’t know how Foxy does it.” Bonnie muttered as he walked away. Mike smirked and checked the west corner. He was about to change the camera back to the dining room, but something caught his eye just as he did. He switched back but it was gone already, it was the poster that had always been there as far as he knew. There was something on it, now it was gone. Mike furrowed his brow and turned to look out the door. The last thing he saw before he leapt into action...was a faded, limp, yellow animatronic suit.


	35. Chapter 35

Mike rolled to the side as Golden Freddy jumped at him and let out a deep scream. Mike grabbed his bag and ran out the door, surprising Bonnie who was down the hall. Mike ran right past him and slid underneath a table. He pulled out the new toy from his bag and examined it. It was a bright, plastic, gun that was made to shoot salt in a shotgun-like fashion. It was intended for extermination insects, but it was on sale, and Mike wanted a new toy.

“Here’s to hoping that salt actually repels ghosts.” He muttered and poured the ammunition, salt he picked up at the Ralph’s, and cocked it. He crawled out from underneath the table and stood quickly.

“What’s going on?” Bonnie asked as Chica emerged from her hall.

“Golden Freddy.” Mike said quietly and pointed the gun down the hall, holding it near his cheek and looking down the plastic iron-sights, nothing was there.

“Who? What do you mean Golden Freddy?” Chica asked. Mike looked over at her, “You don’t know?” The bunny and chicken seemed honestly confused. Freddy looked over and his eyes suddenly went wide, he pointed and played a recording.

“Hey there kids!” Mike turned and saw Golden Freddy sitting limp in the exact same position. Mike fired from the hip, trusting in his aim. The salt hit the metal body of the still animatronic suit and sparked. It temporarily fuzzed away, but snapped back into reality. It leapt at Mike and he dodged again, it seemed to ignore the other animatronics for some reason. Foxy hobbled out of his cove, “What are you-what is that!?” He shouted suddenly, Mike waves at him and cocked the gun again. Golden Freddy screamed again and jumped towards him. Mike fired quickly at the approaching spirit but didn’t have enough time to get out of the way. It phased right through him, making Mike feel slightly nauseous and shivery. Mike cocked it again and fired at the back of Golden Freddy. It fuzzed out even further and became a vague yellow blur. Mike cocked the gun one last time and fired, the salt hit the blue and sparked loudly. The blur disappeared with a deep scream and suddenly, there was silence.

“That wasn’t so-“ Mike was cut off as something slammed against him from behind. He blacked out for a second, then saw Golden Freddy above him, having tackled and pinned him from behind. The gun had been knocked from his hand and out of his reach. Mike strained against its grip but to no avail. He groaned and watched as it slowly opened its jaw, despite nothing being able to hold it open. Mike saw nothing inside but the interior of the suit, it was empty. Suddenly there was a click-click and the sound of the salt gun being fired. There were sparks above Mike, then the big yellow bear seemed to go out of focus. Mike quickly rolled out from underneath it and turned to see who had saved him. It was Foxy, he had somehow made it fast enough from his cove curtains, to grab the gun off the ground and shoot the ghost bear. Mike smiled and the fox growled and tossed the gun back to him.

“Doesn’t mean I like you or anything, I just don’t want you bleeding all over our perfectly nice ground.” Mike nodded understandingly and pointed the gun back at Golden Freddy. It was gone, Bonnie looked back over to it and seemed shocked as well. Mike walked around the whole building and declared the place exorcised...for now.

“Damn bear got away.” He growled, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to see Freddy glaring at him. Mike shrugged, “You’re a better bear anyways, I hate yellow.” There was a scoff and he turned to see Chica glaring at him as well.

“Well-I...I didn’t mean...your yellow is different!” He stammered suddenly a nervous wreck despite just facing down death without blinking.

“How is it different?” She asked haughtily, her glare was predatory and full of spite, chickens were supposed to be scary.

“You don’t have anything against purple bunnies do you?” Bonnie asked sarcastically.

“Of course I do.” Mike said honestly. “I’ve only known one good purple bunny.” Bonnie nodded and turned. Mike leaned over to Freddy and whispered, “And he lives down in Milwaukee, never visited here.” Freddy leaned back and grabbed his stomach. It took Mike a second to realize he was laughing, just without the sound. He still hadn’t figured out why the voice synthesizer wasn’t working.

“Don’t you have a recorded laugh?” Mike asked. Freddy rolled his eyes and nodded, then unfortunately played it.

An hour later the animatronics found Mike huddled in the bathroom pointing the gun through the stall door.

“Don’t you ever dare play that damnnable ‘laugh’ again. How is it possible for a robotic bear to sound like a possessed clown?” After Freddy had played it, Mike went pale and ran into the office. After they followed him, they discovered that he had somehow climbed up through the vent and escaped. They followed the sound of him crawling through the vent to the backroom where they figured out after a long time, that he had started moving silently. They split up and searched for him until Freddy found him in the bathroom. Mike checked the clock mounted on the wall, 5:47.

“One more game of Get The Mike?” He asked innocently as he swung the gun. Chica shuddered, “We are  _ not _ calling it that… _ ever _ .” Mike shrugged and grinned. He was finally starting to have fun again.


	36. Chapter 36

Mike walked out of the building and waved to the animatronics. They all waved back from the stage except Foxy who stuck his arm out from behind the curtains and flipped him off. Mike snickered and turned around, there was a van pulling into the parking lot. He quickly changed gears to responsible security guard and walked over to the van. He knocked on the window and it rolled down revealing a man and a woman in the driver and passenger seat wearing white caps and white shirt.

“Is this a registered pedo-van?” Mike asked and pointed his flashlight at them. The woman looked seriously confused.

“Ex-Excus-“

“I said is this a registered pedo-van. I see the whited out windows and dark windows. It looks like a pedo-van, but is it a registered pedo-van?” Mike interrupted.

“I heard you but-“ 

“Well then if you heard me then the question should be easy to answer.” Mike almost busted out laughing at the look on their faces.

“This is a family friendly environment that is frequented by children and I will... _ not _ ...tolerate pedophiles near this establishment.”

“We’re the janitors.” The man said abruptly. Mike opened his mouth to respond but then what the man said clicked in.

“The janitors? We’ve never had janitors here bef-“

“That’s because the building didn’t need serious cleaning before. The place opens at 11:00 today, we need to clean it before the grand reopening. Haven’t you seen the posters?” He pointed over Mikes shoulder to a lamppost hat had a bright poster taped to it. Mike shook his head and glared at the man for interrupting.

“Who are you to be telling us off for having a perfectly legitimate van?” The woman asked. Someone stuck their head out from behind the seats, “Hey, what's the holdup?” He asked. 

“I’m the night guard.” Mike asked and lifted his salt gun triumphantly. The man raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“Well the flashlight is a legitimate weapon so I can’t wave it around.” The woman looked at the flashlight and suddenly went pale.

“I-Is that a taser on that?” She stammered. Mike nodded and pointed it away from them.

“You should be a bit more attentive to what people point at you, you don’t notice for-SWEET SAINT JEHOVA!” Mike shouted that last part and dived out of the way as the woman raised a can of pepper spray.

“Okay truce, truce!” The man shouted. The back doors of the van opened and two people walked out.

“What’s going on?” One of them asked. Mike promptly stood, saluted, raised the salt gun and rested it on his shoulder like he was a soldier and walked away.

“W-who is that?” One of the janitors asked.

“That’s the night guard.” The woman said with a grim look. She sighed and got out of the van, they had a building to clean.

Mike giggled to himself as he walked to his apartment. He always enjoyed confusing people to the point of frustration. He hadn’t been threatened in a long time...by a human. He swung his bag and whistles as he walked. He passed a poster declaring the opening of two new Freddy Fazbear locations and turned a corner. A second passed, then Mike came charging back around the corner to the poster on the building window. _Two_ _new locations?_ Mike examined the poster and soaked up the information. New animatronics? Improved security? Mike read the dates and sighed, why were they opening on almost the exact same day? The next location was scheduled to open in just a few weeks. He continued walking, suddenly depressed. Why would he be? The animatronics has only tried to kill him, why would he feel bad about them being replaced?

Because they also saved his life. Mike sat in his room and thought, Foxy had saved his life despite Mike severing his foot. Did they feel like they owed him? They didn’t actually kill him so technically they didn’t owe him anything. Why would they help him, why did Mike help them? Mike got like that sometimes, where he simply acted on instincts and didn’t really know what he was doing. He read about it once, it was the subconscious taking over. And the subconscious was like the super mind. It never forgot anything and was like a little helpful voice or feeling. Mike had read that people couldn’t access the subconscious, but he always felt like if he just stopped concentrating about whatever he was doing, he would do the job much better. Like tests, he had never studied for tests, but had always excelled without even focusing on the test. It was strange, but helpful. Mike sat back on the couch and sighed, the next week was going to be hectic. He wanted to bring in a game for something to pass the time during the long night. What would be amazing was if Mike could get a laptop or something in and he could download a game. He still had his Steam account...wait. Mike sat up with eyes wide. What was he talking about? The office had a computer, but it was pretty old. Mike stood and walked over to the desk by the wall. He brushed off bits of flaky paint that had fallen off the ceiling and pulled open a drawer. Inside were two smallish, metal boxes metal. They were performance and audio cards, upgrades that can be inserted into computers and used to improve audio and processing ability. Mike had made them as a side project in his Computer Hardware class back in high school. He grinned and pulled them out and set them in his black duffel bag. It was time to introduce the animatronics to video games.


	37. Chapter 37

Mike walked around the apartment searching for a foot. He needed to rest for the night shift tonight, but more importantly he wanted to pick up some tools from Esmerelda’s auto shop and fix that dang fox’s foot. He wasn’t being brought back for the grand reopening, but he was going to be repaired and showcased in the building, but they couldn’t showcase him if he was missing a foot claimed Chase over a phone call to Mike’s apartment building. Mike disagreed, but he was just a night guard, and also he had a vendetta against Foxy so there was that. Mike finally gave up, there wasn’t much space to search in his tiny apartment so it was obvious that it wasn’t there. He sighed and left the room, locking the door behind him. He entered the lobby through the elevator and glanced over at the front counter where the landlord was sleeping in a chair. Mike noticed a plastic bag in his package box behind the counter. He marched over and rang the bell, it let out a pathetic ‘tink’ and failed to wake the landlord. Mike sighed and pounded on the counter with his fist. The landlord jerked awake and looked up with a glare, “Whas’ yew wan’ wif me?” he asked with a snarl. Mike pointed silently to the package behind him. The short man glanced over his shoulder and then back at Mike, “Wha’ abou’ it?” the greasy man asked. Mike rolled his eyes, “It’s mine, it’s in my box.”

“Issit now?” the landlord lumbered over and examined the box with the bag in it carefully despite the fact that he wasn’t nearsighted. Mike knew that as a fact due to him never seeing him put on glasses or contacts.

“Oh it seems youses righ’.” He held out his hand, “Mail fee.” Mike cocked his head.

“Mail fee? There’s no such thing!” He protested.

“T’aint true.” The landlord said. Mike grumbled and handed him two dollars. The man pocketed it and held his hand out again. Mike glared and spat on the floor, the man narrowed his eyes and spat a bigger loogie. Mike accepted the challenge and started coughing up an even bigger...whatever a loogie was made of. He spat and there was an audible slap as it hit the floor. The landlords eyebrows raised and he leaned over the counter to look at it. He grunted, then handed Mike the package. Mike accepted it and examined the inside, there was Foxy’s foot, an a note from…

“The hospital.” Mike groaned, “Of course.” The landlord looked up, “Wha’? Is youses dyin’?” he looked excited. “Am oi finally gonna git tha’ rum back?” Mike glared at him and turned away. He needed to buy a house, just to get away from that disgusting man.

Mike knocked on the glass door as he walked into Esmerelda’s auto shop.

“Hello?” He called. Santiago wasn’t at his usual station at the front desk. Mike walked forwards and rung the bell twice. He waited a moment before the door to the auto shop opened. Esmerelda’s eyes were red and puffy, she smiled but it was clearly forced.

“Hello Mikeal, how are you?” Mike stared for a second before commenting.

“That’s the wrong question. The correct question would be what’s wrong? And that question is for me to ask.” Esmerelda looked confused. Mike leaned over the counter and looked her in the eyes.

“What’s wrong? And if you tell me that it’s nothing, I’m gonna have to expose your lies.” Esmerelda smiled, “It’s just some bad news.” She dropped her smile. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” Mike rolled his eyes, “Clearly you aren’t worrying about it.” Esmerelda laughed a little bit, then started to cry. He jumped the counter and landed next to her.

“Hey it’s okay, everything’s gonna be okay.” Mike tried comforting her, although he was never really good at it. It was easier to make people laugh and make them forget that they were sad.

“It’s-its my father. He’s been...in an accident. He’s in the ho-hospital and my mother…” she trailed off and started crying harder. Mike hesitantly grabbed her hand. 

“I-I’m so sorry.” He said quietly. Esmerelda buried her face in Mike’s arm and cried even harder. They sat there for several minutes, Mike holding Esmerelda’s hand and her crying into Mike. Esmerelda eventually sat up and wiped her eyes, “Thank you Mike.” She whispered. Mike nodded, “Anytime.” They sat in silence for a few minutes longer.

“So...where's little Santi?” Mike asked, wanting to break the silence. Esmerelda smiled, “He’s hanging out with some friends finally. He’s been taking classes online because...well he doesn’t do well in school. Not that it’s his fault, he just doesn’t mix well with a lot of kids at the same time. He’s very smart but other kids make him nervous.

Mike pushed open the doors to the pizzeria and shouted, “HONEY! I’M HOOOME!” Freddy looked over, smiled, and waved. Mike waved back and looked around, there was no sign of the others.

“Where is everyone?” he asked, Freddy pointed to Pirate’s Cove and garbled something indecipherable. Mike winced, “We need to get you fixed dude.” Freddy nodded enthusiastically. Mike wandered over to Pirate’s Cove and opened the curtains. Bonnis, Chica, and Foxy were sitting on the floor playing...was that Candyland? Foxy drew a card and growled as he had to move back a few spaces. Mike held in his laughter for about three seconds before it all came bursting out of him. They looked up curiously as they watched Mike nearly split a seam with his laughter.

“Why-are you all...all playing-playing CANDYLAND?” he said between breaths and laughter. Chica glared, “Candyland is a historic and honorable game that surpasses its age in complexity and originalit-”

“Damn I got blue.” Bonnie said and moved back a few spaces. Mike started losing it again and had to take a minute to breathe, he calmed down after a while and slapped his knee.

“Oh that’s hilarious. Anyway, I got something to show you guys. Come on, wait where’d you learn damn?”

“The cleaners, something about ‘damn nightguard not knowing how to clean up spilled cleaning fluid.’” Bonnie shrugged and nudged Chica to indicate it was her turn. Mike nodded in appreciation and gestured for them to follow.

Mike pressed the enter key and the Steam website slowly loaded, it had taken a while to set up, but it was finally ready. He entered his account info and logged in, his enormous plethora of games appeared and a tear slowly went down Mike’s face.

“It-It’s beautiful.” he said quietly. He looked around and saw that they had all left except Freddy.

“Where’d they go?” Mike asked, Freddy pantomimed moving a game piece around a board and pointed out the door. They must’ve gotten tired of waiting, Mike sighed and walked out. He poked his head back in and said, “We gotta get that voice box fixed.” then grabbed his flashlight and left. Freddy rolled his eyes and looked at the computer screen, then kneeled down by the desk because he was too heavy to sit in the chair.

  
  


Mike walked to the curtains of Pirates Cove and took a deep breath. He then screamed at the top of his lungs and charged in at full speed swinging and flashing his flashlight. They all leapt into the air right before the light shut them down. Mike stood for a second and watched them reboot, he had used a dimmer light so they wouldn’t be out for a long time. Chica sat up first and rubbed her head, then Bonnie and Foxy, “Ugh why did you do that?” Bonnie groaned.

“You left! I was almost done!” He protested. Foxy flipped him off and Mike retaliated with his own middle finger. Foxy raised his other finger, and Mike matched him. They glared at each other for a few seconds before Mike reached into his bag and tossed Foxy’s foot at him. He could see surprise register as he caught it.

“My foot?” He asked, “Are you going to reattach it?” Mike hesitated then nodded.

“Why’d you hesitate?” He asked.

“Well to reattach it, I’ll need to work on it in a shop. And bringing you right in isn’t really gonna fly. I can’t drive you and you aren’t built for long travel. Long travel being about three-fourths of a mile.”

“Then how do you expect to fix it?” Foxy asked, he seemed to be excited but also trying to hide it. Mike ring his hands, he wasn’t usually this nervous.

“I need to chop off your leg.” Mike said quickly. Foxy’s eyebrow went up, “What?”

“Well less chop off and more...surgically remove. I have the tools to remove your leg but not to attach your foot. If that makes any sense.” Foxy slowly shook his head and Mike waved him off.

“Go enjoy your leg while you can, I’ll remove it at around 5:45 and should have your foot reattached to your leg in a jiffy.” Foxy rolled his eyes and scooted over to the wall. Mike pointed at the other two robots.

“You two...you’re coming with me.”

Mike stepped into the office and was startled to see Freddy staring intently at the computer. Mike peered around his arm and saw him playing...was that Resident Evil 2? Freddy was neck deep in the zombie horror game. Mike watched as he played for a second before clearing his throat. Freddy turned his head to look at him while simultaneously pausing the game.

“Are you...actually playing Resident Evil 2?” Freddy nodded and turned back to the game. The other walked in and saw Freddy playing already.

“What are you doing? How’d you do that?” Bonnie asked. He seemed confused since the only thing he ever saw on that computer screen was the cameras.

“It’s Resident Evil 2.” Mike said. He turned to look at Bonnie and saw the confused look on his face.

“Oh you probably don’t know what that is. You poor, poor soul, it’s okay. Mister Mike will teach you to not be uncultured swine.” Mike hugged Bonnie and looked up into his eyes. Bonnie just looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. Mike tried to as well but couldn’t. He tried to focus on just the one eyebrow but found it frustratingly difficult.

“You okay?” Chica asked, she had been watching Freddy as well but looked over as Mike struggles and made weird faces as he tried to move his eyebrow.

“He’s trying to move his eyebrow…I think. Either that or he’s having a seizure in his face.” Bonnie looked over at the screen and if animatronics could go pale then he would’ve.

“W-What is THAT!” Mike looked over and saw that Freddy was fighting a Licker.

“Just a Licker.” Mike said casually. Bonnie turned away, “I can’t watch that, that’s horrifying!”

Mike snickered, “Dude are you scared?” Bonnie shook his head. Mike pressed the door button and closed it right in front of Bonnie. Bonnie screamed and ran into the door. Mike fell over laughing his head off while Bonnie started wide eyed at the door in front of him. He turned and glared at Mike and was about to yell at him but he was interrupted by a screech from the game. He looked over at the screen and almost puked, the Licker had killed the person that Freddy was playing as.

“I’m gonna be sick.” Bonnie said as he opened the door and ran out. Mike slowly recovered after his laughing spree and looked over at Freddy. He was grinning and had a thumbs up. 

“Glad that we have a horror game fan here.” Mike said and high fived Freddy.

“Ow, I should stop doing that.” He said and rubbed his hand.


	38. Chapter 38

“Okay just keep walking around until you find a key or something.” Mike said as Bonnie moved his character across the screen. He was playing White Door, he had taken a liking to point and click games. It was unfortunate that he didn’t like horror games, but nobody was perfect. The rest of them were all standing around the screen and watching. Mike nudged Foxy and pointed to the door with his head. Foxy nodded and they walked out, “You ready?” Mike asked. Foxy nodded and looked down at his leg, Mike was supporting him as much as he could while Foxy wobbled unsteadily. They made it to Pirate’s Cove and Foxy slowly knelt, then laid himself down. Mike opened his bag and removed a set of allen wrenches. He peered at the thigh joint of Foxy’s leg and started unscrewing it from the hip.

A while later Mike gently pulled the leg away from Foxy’s hip and set it down, he tightened some other screws just to prevent them from falling out and sighed. Foxy had shut down halfway through due to the time passing over to six. Mike sat back and wiped his brow, it wasn’t hard work but it was stressful. Mike lifted the leg and bent it so that he could fit it in his bag. It wasn’t terribly heavy, he would need to repair some other parts of the leg as well. There was rust and jagged edges all over it, he’d have to ask for overtime for this. Mike stood up and walked out of the purple curtains masking Foxy’s private stage. He saw the cleaners walking around and working, one of the saw Mike and shouted. The woman looked up and rolled her eyes, “Why are you still here?” She asked irritably.

“A leg.” Mike answered innocently and smirked at her. The guy who Mike had startled looked at the duffel bag on his shoulder, he seemed suspicious. Mike ignored him and walked to the office, predictably they had left the computer running. They must not have been looking at the time. Mike shut it down and checked the office before he left, he felt a chill from just behind him and he whirled around swinging the duffel bag. It passed through Golden Freddy and caused it to shake and spark from the salt gun inside the bag. Mike quickly unzipped it and removed the gun, but Golden Freddy disappeared before he could fire. Mike waited a minute before stowing the gun away and leaving the office. He waved to the cleaners and walked out, he needed to see Esmerelda.

Mike sparked the welder igniting the gas and started cutting. He was trying to cut off or smooth the jagged edges of the metal suit as much as he could. It took a while but it would pay off quite well if he could make this thing at least kid friendly. Mike looked over at Santiago who was watching with interest.

He said something that Mike couldn’t make out so he lifted the welding hood. 

“What is that?” Santiago asked again.

“A welding torch.” Mike said, Santiago rolled his eyes and pointed to the leg on the table.

“A leg.” Mike replied.

“A leg for what?” Santiago asked, he was getting frustrated.

“A robot.” Mike said and grinned.

“What  _ kind  _ of robot?” Santiago asked through gritted teeth. Esmerelda poked her head in, “Quit giving my boy a hard time.”

“It’s a foxy robot.” Mike said. Santiago and looked at him confusedly and Esmerelda snorted, Mike went red.

“No-not that kind of-I didn’t mean...whatever. It’s a fox animatronic. Okay?” Santiago suddenly looked excited. “Like Foxy the Pirate? From Freddy’s?” Mike nodded slowly, “Yep, that’s Foxy’s leg.” Santiago looked almost reverent as he stared in awe at the leg.

“Why’d you take his leg off?” Santiago asked. Mike pointed to the snapped foot joint.

“His foot broke off and I didn’t have the tools to fix it at the pizzeria.”

“Wait do you work there?!” Santiago looked like he might pop. Mike nodded again and Santiago unleashed a flurry of questions.

“What’s it like? Do you get to talk to the animatronics? Do you get free pizza? Can you take me with you?”

“Whoa whoa! Slow down there.” Mike held out a hand stopping little Santiago’s tirade of verbal assault. He looked apologetic and looked down, “Sorry I’m a big fan of Freddy’s.”

“No kidding.” Mike muttered. He put the hood back over his face and finished his cut. He examined it and approved of it. He undid the clasps that held the metal suit to the endoskeleton and removed each piece so that there was nothing left but the bare endo. Mike examined the break, then slid the foot over to try and match it up, fortunately there was no piece that was broken off. There was only the metal that had broken, probably due to stress from Foxy running. Mike fiddled with the knobs of the welding torch, then began heating up the jagged end of the metal leg.

About ten minutes later, Mike had fully reattached the leg, wires were reconnected and joints tested. He’d have to bring it to Foxy to make sure that any software wasn’t damaged in the process. He saw a circuit board or two in there and he wasn’t sure how they would take the heat. But it was finished, and it was about mid-morning which was bedtime for Mike. He put away the welding equipment and was just about to leave before Esmerelda grabbed his arm and turned him around.

“We need to talk.” She said and pointed towards a door that Mike had never gone through. He followed her through and she locked it behind her.

“What’s goin-“ Mike was interrupted by Esmerelda shushing him.

“There was someone here the other day, after you left. They were from Freddy’s.”

“Chase?” Mike asked, he didn’t know of anybody else who worked there other than the cleaners.

“No. Not the restaurant Freddy’s, they said they were from Fazbear Entertainment.” Mike raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Why? What did they ask you about?”

“They made me sign a contract and accept a bribe to not speak about what I saw in the pizzeria. They saw me on the cameras those nights. They  _ found _ me.” Esmerelda sounded distressed.

“Does Santiago know?” Mike asked. He couldn’t believe that they would actually bribe someone to keep quiet. They didn’t seem angry that Esmerelda was there, they just wanted her silenced. She shook her head, “No he was at school.” Mike nodded, “Okay, it’s up to you whether or not to tell him. But just be careful, Chase was telling me how serious they were about those animatronics. They apparently have microphones there, but they don’t work after six which personally is kinda a major design flaw.” Mike sighed, “Do you think we should tell people about this?” Esmerelda looked over at him with a cocked eyebrow, “How do you look in a straitjacket?” She asked.

“Right.” Mike said. There was silence for a moment.

“I’m scared Mike, when they were talking to me they insinuated that if I tried to tell people about it...they would make me disappear.” Mike growled in response.

“I hate that they can feel like they can do that. Don’t worry about it, I hate to say it but keeping quiet may be your best option.” Esmerelda nodded, “I know...I’m just so scared.” Mike nodded, “If they try anything just let me know and I promise you’ll never see them again.” Esmerelda chuckled, “What are you gonna chase them off with your flashlight?” Mike smiled, “I just might.” They both laughed, then there was a knock at the door. They both stopped abruptly, Mike warily unlocked the door and opened it. Santiago was standing there looking suspicious. Mike grinned at him and ruffled his short, black hair.

“Sorry, had to steal your aunt there. We needed to have a little talk.” Mike waved to Esmerelda and walked out the door. She watched him walk away until he was out of sight. That man is something else, she thought as she put on a smile for the next customer to walk in.


	39. Chapter 39

Mike stood by the pay telephone while it rung over and over again.

“Hello Mikeal.” Chase said wearily. He sound very tired, like he had just rolled out of bed despite it being 4:00 in the afternoon.

“Hey Chase, so Esmerelda was just talking to me an-“

“I know Mikeal. They company called me as well, listen I need to tell you something.” Mike was worried, his tone of voice and the situation was worrying. He sighed and said quietly, “They’ve reassigned me. To a different location.” Mike’s eyes widened.

“What! They can’t just move you somewhere else!”

“Yes they can Mikeal. They can and will, they’ve decided that this job opportunity was becoming too personal and that I’ve been too involved. They’re moving me to a newer location.” Mike sputtered for a few moments before he went silent.

“Who are they replacing you with?” Mike asked quietly.

“Well...here’s the good news, you’re being promoted...to head manager.” Chase went silent, Mike stood there for a full ten seconds before what he said clicked in.

“M-me? Why me?” He asked.

“They want someone who is familiar with the place and you were the only candidate who was pretty familiar with the pizzeria.” Mike almost dropped the phone.

“I don’t know anything about running a pizzeria!” Mike protested.

“I’m going to come in tomorrow night and give a crash course…it’s all pretty easy.”

Mike stood in silence, Chase hung up and the automated voice told Mike to replace the phone in the cradle. Mike just stood there until someone else tapped him on the shoulder and told him to get off the phone.

Chase set his office phone down on the cradle and sighed. He read over the document describing the new location he was being sent to. New animatronics, six of them if he was counting correctly. Three of them were upgraded plastic versions of the three originals. There was some kind of new foxy, a little robot that just handed out balloons, and a marionette. He had just received the document describing his new job, the address, and the animatronics. No, ’We are moving you to a new location.’ Or a, ‘We have a new job for you.’ Or even a simple, ‘We’re demoting you to another location with a higher fatality rate.’ They wanted him gone from this town so he couldn’t tell people the truth about Freddy’s. He heard his two sons arguing in the other room, and the sound of his wife stopping her sewing to go deal with them. Chase grimaced and stood to go inform them of a family meeting. They would be gone in just a few days.

Mike unlocked the doors to the building and walked in, it was still early. Early enough that the animatronics were still on the stage. Mike quickly walked to Pirates Cove and slid the curtains open. Foxy was in a seated position against the wall, Mike knelt down next to him and unzipped his bag. He removed the leg from inside and placed it in front of the fox. Mike rummaged in his bag until he found the allen wrenches and the brown fabric bundle.

A few minutes later, Mike had reattached the leg. Unfortunately now came the difficult part, or at least the uncomfortable part. Mike unfolded the fabric bundle and held it up, it was a pair of pants, a pair that was way too big that he had found at a clothing donation box near the hospital. Mike held it by the fox’s legs and measured how long they would be when he…put them on the fox. He didn’t think that the fox would have the capability to put them on himself. Mike prepared himself and was about to put them on the fox when he encountered a very obvious and problematic problem, in the shape of Foxy’s massive feet. Mike looked down at the robots foot, then the leg, then the pants. He sighed and started to unscrew the leg again.

After he had removed both legs and the metal exosuit over Foxy’s thighs, he pulled the leg hole of the pants as wide as he could and slipped them over the metal leg. He did the same with the other leg and pulled the leg holes down over them. Now he had a pair of pants with legs in them, but no body. He suddenly heard a whirring noise and looked up. Foxy was staring at him, then the pants, then he slowly looked down at his waist. Mike smiled, “Morning!”

“Get away from me!” Foxy shouted as he crawled away as best he could with his one hand. Mike was calmly walking next to him trying to convince him that he wasn’t trying to harm him.

“I was just trying to fix your leg!” Mike protested.

“Why’d you take them both off then?!” He started attempting to crawl under a table but instead just got caught on the metal chair legs and dragged them along behind him as he crawled.

“Cause I couldn’t fit the pants on you!” Mike examined how Foxy had stuck himself. It would be difficult to remove him from the tangle of tables and chairs, but not impossible.

“Why were you putting pants on me!” Foxy groaned and tried to struggle to remove himself.

“Because all the exposed wire and metal on your legs could cause further damage to your systems. Tiny bits of dirt or water getting inside your joints could wear the joints faster or ruin them immediately.” Mike was getting frustrated, Foxy was only putting too much stress on his arms by trying to free himself.

“Why do you care!” Foxy shot back at him. Mike rolled his eyes, “Well it was mostly my fault that you were broken in the first place.” 

“Damn right.” Foxy growled.

“Well then if I’m right then help me. Hold still while I get all those chairs off you.” Foxy reluctantly complied while Mike gently lifted chairs and untangled their legs. There was one chair leg that had gone through a hole in Foxy’s exosuit and dented the endoskeleton but it was minimal damage compared to the rest of him. Mike brought the legs with the pants from Pirates Cove and lined them up with Foxy’s hip. He reattached them and checked the wires while the old robot examined them. Mike stood up and held out a hand to lift Foxy. He grabbed it and yanked Mike to the ground. Mike shouted in surprise and landed next to the rusted fox. He chuckled and stood up on own repaired legs. Foxy wobbled a little but remained upright.

“Alright you’ll want to stop running so much so that we don’t have too much stress on your joints. You aren’t built to run, but you’re able to somehow. Mike stretched his back and groaned, the other animatronics were waiting off to the side and watching with interest.

“Thanks for the help.” Mike said jokingly irritated. Bonnie raised his hands, “I wasn’t going to get between you two.” Mike nodded.

“Smart.”

Later while Mike was showing Chica the intricacies of the game Submachine, he heard a knocking at the glass door. Mike was confused until he remembered that Chase would be coming by to show him his new managerial gig. Mike stood up and left Chica to her point-and-click puzzle. He saw Chase standing outside helplessly with his keycard. Mike raised a finger, then pointed to the door lock. He raced into the office and stared at the computer, he needed to connect it to the door lock somehow.

“Kay Chica I need to disconnect the computer so I can fix the door lock.” Chica looked over and sighed, “Why don’t you use the tablet?” She said. Mike froze, “Tablet?” Chica pointed to a desk drawer and opened it. Inside was a dinner plate sized electronic tablet.

“And why did you neglect to mention this sooner?” Mike asked dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that there was a perfectly good tablet sitting in the desk unused.

“It’s a company one I think. It’s an alternative security monitor for the cameras. But it doesn’t work.” Mike removed it from the drawer and pressed the power button. It beeped softly and turned on, Chica looked up and raised an eyebrow. 

“How’d you get that to work?” She asked confused. Bonnie stood up from his seat on Chica’s left and looked at the tablet.

“Chica did you ever think to turn it on?” Bonnie asked gently. She suddenly looked sheepish, “Well all the other times you just had to push the home button and it would turn on. When it stopped turning on we plugged it in but it still stayed off.” Mike rubbed his face in exhaustion and knelt to zip open his bag. Chase would be wondering where he was.

After a simple rewiring and reprogramming, Mike followed Chase as he led him to a door that he hadn’t seen or noticed before. Mike was having a strange sense of deja vu as he followed the shorter man around the tables and chairs.

“What happened here?” He asked as they passed the mess of knocked over seats near Pirates Cove. Mike shrugged, “Foxy overreacted.” Chase nodded and looked nervously at Freddy who was shut down on the stage.

“You’re perfectly fine Chase. You’re at the safest place on earth.” Mike grinned as he quoted the phone guy. Chase's face immediately fell, ‘Idiot,‘ Mike thought as he mentally slapped himself, ‘That was his brother.’

“Anyway, here’s your new office. Desk, chair, laptop, the works.” Chase said as he pointed to each item in turn.

“We have people to do the financial work and all that. You’re job is to manage the staff and basically anything related to the direct business to this building. Like I said, easy.” Mike nodded and watched Chase carefully lift a small Bonnie figurine from the desk and examine it. He set it in his pocket and reached his hand out to shake Mike’s. He smiled and shook it vigorously, then surprisingly he hugged him. Mike was shocked for a second, then hesitantly hugged him back. Chase released him and took a step back while clearing his throat. “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright.” Mike said quickly. Chase nodded and looked around the office one last time. Then walked out, Mike watched him leave the building, get into his car, and drive away. Mike didn’t know how he knew it, but he knew that he would never see his friend again


	40. Ch@p<|r 4&

There is a faint shimmer in the black void. Then static, which eventually resolved into an image. A man was sitting at a desk in a small office. A door opened silently and a nervous looking teen walked in. They spoke silently for a few seconds before the audio suddenly kicked in.

“-orry about anything. You’ve got the job already, I’m just going to show you around the place.” The teen nodded and followed the man out. They walked around the spacious building while the man narrated. They visited the stage, the party rooms, the prize corner, and the parts and service room.

“Have you worked at another location of ours before?” The man asked, the camera's microphone barely picked up his voice. The teen shook his head, “That’s okay, we just have a few things for you to sign.” The teen nodded and the man held out a small tablet for him to electronically sign. He signed and shook Chase’s hand.

“Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria and Arcade Mr. Fitzgerald.”

The camera’s field of view fizzled and went out. There was a dark chuckle and a baritone voice that wasn’t exactly a voice spoke in a tone just barely above a whisper, “Pitiful child.”

A blurry figure walked into your vision and sat at a desk that wasn’t there a second ago. He picked up a manila folder holding several sheets of paper and removed one with red lettering along the side that is still too blurry to read. He cleared his throat and was about to speak before he looked up and sighed. The blurry figure stood up and walked over near you and adjusted a knob. The scene was suddenly thrown into clarity and you can now read the folders label, LFRMMBRD. The sharply dressed man sat back down at the desk and picked up the paper again.

“We have reached the end of the first book of the series. KillCode would like to remind you that there will be many more after this one, and that you have just seen the preview of the next through the eyes of an enemy. Do not worry Mikeal will return, but now we shift our focus to follow the story of Jeremy Fitzgerald. A teenage boy just trying to get by in an uncaring world.” The man cleared his throat again and looked closer at the paper.

“I will...return in...I can’t read this damned man’s handwriting…whatever. He will return soon, that’s it.” The man stood up and brushed imaginary dust off of his suit jacket.

“Good day to you all.”

Your vision slowly goes dark, and just before it does. You hear a faint child’s voice, but you can’t make out what it is saying.


End file.
